Francesco Sossai's new film, The Last One for the Road, offers a cynical and lenient view of drunkenness, bleariness, sadness, and intermittent nausea. It is a tragicomic exploration of ageing boozers who are ruined romantics with a superhuman ability to keep drinking throughout the day, always seeking one last drink in the hope of elusive happiness or wisdom. The film begins and ends with the same deadpan gag: someone, on the verge of a permanent farewell, shouts a crucial piece of life advice that is bewilderingly inaudible.
A Road Movie and Buddy Tale
The film is a road movie, a buddy movie, and a faintly baffling shaggy-dog tale. It is a coming-of-age story that embraces infantilism and not coming of age; a bittersweet comedy without the sweet. It is intensely depressing yet funny at the same time. The protagonists are Doriano (Pierpaolo Capovilla) and Carlobianchi (Sergio Romano), two middle-aged wasters who are always amiably drunk, living hand-to-mouth on the fringes of petty crime. They reside in the luxurious car they bought with their share of a scam set up by their buddy Genio (Andrea Pennacchi). Genio stole designer glasses and sunglasses from the factory that employed him and, with Doriano and Carlobianchi, sold them at knockdown prices.
Fellini-esque Beginnings
The film opens with Genio sneaking out of a retirement party at the factory, where the bosses arrive by helicopter. This scene may be designed to recall Fellini, although a less Fellini-esque helicopter ride can hardly be imagined. The retirement party is for an ageing employee named Primo Sossai, who later makes an enigmatic return. The whole film might be a gossiped-about urban legend within the director's own family.
Missed Reunion in Venice
Genio had to flee the country to evade the cops and is now apparently returning to Venice, where Doriano and Carlobianchi hope for a reunion. However, a bizarre blunder means they miss him. The film offers an unsentimental view of Venice, with a brief glimpse of the Santa Croce district and a scene outside Venice Treviso airport, Italy's equivalent of Luton airport.
A Lovelorn Student Joins the Journey
While bumbling around tipsily, the duo meets a young architecture student, Giulio (Filippo Scotti), who is poignantly and unrequitedly in love with another student. Our two ravaged non-heroes shrewdly sense his pain. The entire movie follows Giulio exasperatedly agreeing to hang out with these two outrageous losers. He takes them to an architectural marvel: the postmodernist Brion tomb near Treviso, designed by Carlo Scarpa, whose distinctive concrete forms are a meditation on death. This raises the question of whether the film's characters are finally meditating on death themselves.
Healing and Friendship
Perhaps the point is that Doriano and Carlobianchi heal Giulio's romantic pain, although it could be that his love is not quite as unrequited as it seems. Giulio becomes their real buddy, their real third musketeer, when Genio proves himself a less than satisfactory friend. It is a likable movie that follows its nose, mooching around like a drunk in the afternoon. The Last One for the Road is in UK and Irish cinemas from 10 July.
