I am intrigued by Old Hollywood, so when I heard Sophia Loren had made a new movie, I had to see it. I remember her in House Boat with Cary Grant and Arabesque with Gregory Peck. I wanted to know if the 80ish actor could still bring the magic of movie making. This time her leading man would be a12 year old boy and would sex appeal work at her age?

The story all by itself drew me in. An older Jewish woman took in a Muslim child.

A Life Ahead tells the story of Madame Rosa who takes in children from the streets of her Italian town who have lost their parents. It follows the life of a 12-year-old Senegalese boy called Momo as he manages his life on the streets. In the opening sequence, Momo robs her.

Normally, bad teens get on my nerves because many writers allow them to do terrible things and get away with it. Momo gets to reap a little of what he has sown. It makes him a better person. As he adapts to life in Madame Rosa’s house, he discovers that there is an alternate way of living.

My favorite scene is when Momo, played by Ibrahima Gueye keeps his promise. This spoke to me in that it exemplified how showing someone how to live different is a better teacher than just telling them. Gueye is very convincing. There are nice moments but also a few sad ones as we watch Madame Rosa age.

The Italian language film was directed by Loren’s son, Edoardo Ponti, A Life Ahead and ison Netflix. The movie is dubbed in English, but the beautiful scenes and fun characters make up for it. Before this movie, the last movie Loren made was Human Voice in 2014. This movie was much better than I thought it would be. Loren was very beautiful at 86. The mother son team created a product that I could watch again and again.