The Last Will Be the Last

Luciana is sort of happily married with Stefano and working in a nice, modern factory. Her ordinary life is torn apart by her unexpected pregnancy. Her boss, tipped off by another worker who wants Luciana's job, doesn't renew Luciana's contract and she becomes unemployed when she mostly needs her job.

Stefano is an irresponsible Peter Pan, who resents the responsibility of being the sole breadwinner for the growing family and a marital crisis adds up to the stress of Luciana's unemployment.

When her best friend moves away, Luciana breaks down. After a fight with Stefano, the plot reaches boiling point.

Unfortunately, this plot was considered too thin to carry the movie and a secondary one is glued in, giving the story an uneven tone.

Disgraced policeman Antonio is relocated to Luciana's town and universally despised and derided by his colleagues, also for his inadvertently stumbling into an unlikely "friendship" with a very feminine transsexual.

Antonio and Luciana's collision wraps up the movie with a downward, dissatisfactory and inconclusive turn.

In the last year, there's been nothing but talk about there's still a tomorrow, saying that it was the best drama starring Paola Cortellesi, well I don't agree, it's not a bad film, but The Last will be the last is much better, it's an intense, moving, realistic film that involves you from start to finish and pushes the audience to reflect on certain dramatic situations, something that the other film IMHO doesn't do.

The film is a drama in all respects, even if there are some light moments, typical of the director Bruno, furthermore I find that Paola Cortellesi's performance is truly the best, the best of her career even if Alessandro Gassman (although not as great as his father Vittorio) also shows that he is at ease in a dramatic role.

I think this film is among the best Italian social dramas of recent years and deserves to be rediscovered.