"The Life Ahead" - we'll be discussing the new Sophia Loren movie.

Sophia Loren stars in The Life Ahead (La vita davanti a sé) directed by her son Edoardo Ponti and released on Netflix NFLX -0.4% this Friday November 13. Loosely adapted from a French novel, The Life Ahead tells the story of Momo, a street kid, and his encounter with Madame Rosa, played by Sophia Loren. Ponti’s beautiful film sweetens Romain Gary’s novel, turning it into a tear-jerker.

In the seaside town of Bari in Italy, a twelve-year-old Senegalese-Italian orphan named Momo fends for himself. At the beginning of the film, Momo steals the bags of an old lady, to then unsuccessfully try and sell their contents on to a local dealer. He lives with Dr Coen, until he is taken in reluctantly by Madame Rosa—the very woman Momo stole from—as a favor to the doctor. Madame Rosa used to hold an unofficial daycare for the children of prostitutes, but has now stopped, she tells the doctor, with only Iosif, whose mother has never returned, and Babu, the son of her neighbor Lola (Abril Zamora), left in her care. Dr Coen tells Madame Rosa that this angry pre-teen kid, Momo, is in need of a female influence to guide him. However, it is only after he offers to pay her monthly that she agrees to take Momo.

Momo, though, isn’t happy about this arrangement. Their relationship is at first strained, but slowly a beautiful friendship forms between them. Roles soon reverse, as Rosa’s health deteriorate.