L' Ultimo Bacio  (2001) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski)

This film has been marketed in English-speaking countries as The Last Kiss and One Last Kiss.

If the official French movie involves a woman in mid-life who is unsatisfied by her boring bourgeois life, the official Italian movie must focus on guys who want to hang with the guys instead of tying themselves down with a wife and babies. It seems like all Movie Italian Guys want to hang out with their friends forever, whether the movie is serious or silly. When you get down to it, even The Godfather is about a bunch of guys who ignore their wives and kids in order to hang out with the guys.

That's basically what The Last Kiss is all about as well, although it is a comedy. Sort of. It's a "late coming-of-age" film about the crisis that men go through when they realize that they are about to say farewell to youth forever. In this case, the lead character finds out that his girlfriend is pregnant, and his life seems to be taking a settled, predicable, boring shape. He's talking about diapers, buying a house, and choosing the wedding caterers, while his friends are planning to back-pack though Africa, or sleeping with a different woman every night, or otherwise holding on to their carefree youth. His hand-wringing is intensified by the fact that his friends have failed in their own attempts to settle with a single woman.

So he does what all men of all races do in such a case.

He heads down to the local Catholic girls' high school, picks up a hot senior, and beds her for hours.

Unfortunately, this does not solve his problem. (Does it ever?) In fact, it makes it worse. (Doesn't it always?).

I liked the film, but I have no special enthusiasm for it. The Italians know how to do this kind of calculated angst-laden tragicomedy, so it's a slick production which got some real critical praises, but before you go out to rent it, be advised:

1. It's in Italian, with sub-titles.

2. There's not enough humor and what there is ... well, it is not handled that deftly.

3. The main characters are jerks.  It's difficult to form an emotional identification with any of them. They are superficial and their problems are the kind that don't evoke sympathy from everyday people. I mean, why are these guys so miserable? They have only the trivial preoccupations of sheltered lives. You know, like a rich guy who thinks, "How do I rid myself of the incredibly gorgeous 18 year old girl who loves me, so I can get back with the incredibly gorgeous twenty-something girl I got pregnant." Oh, spare me such anguish and suffering. The Grapes of Wrath it ain't.

4. Portions are quite sentimental, perhaps even maudlin.