The Life Ahead                  4 stars

After a decade since her last movie role, international star Sophia Loren is reappearing in the Italian drama, The Life Ahead.  Directed by her son, Edoardo Ponti, the now 86 year old Loren plays Madame Rosa, a Jewish holocaust survivor and former prostitute who runs a day care for children who have no one else to care for them. The film is set in Puglia, Italy so has many beautiful shots of the seaside town and countryside. One day she encounters Momo, a 12 year-old Senegalese orphan who steals her purse, but returns when his guardian discovers the left and then convinces Rosa to care for the lost boy for a while. The youngster is obviously very troubled and prone to getting into fights and is in need of a guiding force to take him away from the drug dealing, partying crowd he is used to. The movie is about the unlikely bond that eventually forms between the two main characters. It is carried completely by Loren who has been in the movies for some seventy years and should be seen by anyone who considers themselves a fan. The movie is in Italian with English subtitles. An Academy Award nomination for Sophia Loren should be in the near future.