The Last One For The Road

Bluesky

Seizing the day means seizing the bottle for best pals Carlobianchi (Sergio Romano) and Doriano (Pierpaolo Capovilla), who never quite know when to quit. Writer/director Francesco Sossai’s wry film is shot through with lived-in melancholy as he blends a shaggy dog story with a road trip as the pair reminisce about old times, their old friend Genio (Andrea Pennacchi) – who fled the country for various reasons after the 2008 financial crisis – and rove the northern Italian Veneto backwaters in their car in perpetual search of one more for the road.

Stuck in a perpetual cycle of hangover to hair of the dog and back again, their routine double-act changes after they have a chance encounter with stressed-out architecture student Guilio (Filippo Scotti), whose romantic inclinations are, like the drinking duo, going nowhere fast. While introverted Guilio couldn’t be much more different from Carlobianchi and Doriano in outlook or age, they nevertheless take him under their beer-sodden wing.

While not changing the deliberately meandering nature of a screenplay that is musing as much on the changing face of this part of Italy as the circular nature of the men’s lives, things kick up a gear. Guilio's arrival leads them on a fresh set of episodic misadventures that showcase the often crumpled charm of the region. What really makes the film work is the trio of central performances, with Romano and Capovilla deservedly sharing the best actor accolade at Thessaloniki Film Festival for their trouble. The film also netted eight David di Donatello Awards – the Italian equivalent of the Oscars.

Sossai and his co-writing partner Adriano Candiago achieve a similar mood trick to the one they pulled off with their debut feature Other Cannibals, meaning that any melancholic midlife reflection is balanced by a surprising amount of humour and a quiet suggestion that living in the moment has a lot to be said for it.

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