OPENS FEBRUARY 13, CERT 15, 115 MINS
The Last Kiss is writer/director Gabriele Muccino’s exploration of a group of young men poised on the precipice of marriage, parenthood and maturity. His male protagonists battle the inevitable, with the browbeaten Adriano planning to escape from a permanent marital doghouse by driving off with his mates Alberto (compulsive shagger) and Paolo (tormented by unrequited love). Muccino zooms in on Carlo (Stefano Accorsi) and Giulia (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), living together with a baby on the way. It should be a perfect match, but Carlo’s fling with a teenage blonde lights the blue touchpaper, and Giulia sprays on the kerosene. Mezzogiorno takes the honours, closely followed by Stefania Sandrelli as her mother, but a story as familiar as this needs more twists than Muccino offers. And while the male leads are supposed to be a bunch of wimps, did they have to be as insipid as this? On celluloid as in life, the women win by a knockout.