Still Time

Dante turns up hours late to his own fortieth birthday party, and when he wakes the next morning it is his forty first, with his partner four months pregnant. From then on his life advances a year at a time. Every waking is the next birthday, and everything in between has already happened. The premise is familiar and the application is not. Dante is not really losing time. He was never present for those years anyway, because he was always at work, and the film simply makes that visible. Its best scenes involve the child, a year older each time he opens his eyes. Alessandro Aronadio directed, working from the 2021 Australian film Long Story Short, with Edoardo Leo and Barbara Ronchi in the leads. It premiered at the Rome film festival in 2022 and went to Netflix on 16 March 2023. Its flaw is that it states its lesson outright and pushes the last act along with music. Being a remake, it also has no surprises in reserve. Who it is for: viewers who want a light fantastical family comedy. Who it is not for: anyone looking for an original premise.