The First Day of My Life

Four people are about to end their lives on the same night. At that moment a man whose name is never given appears with a single proposal: spend one week watching the world that would follow their deaths, then decide. Paolo Genovese hangs it on a fantastical premise while keeping the emotion in check, so each of them sees how little their absence would change and precisely what it would change. Toni Servillo plays the man making the offer, and who he is deliberately goes unexplained. Its best observation is that hope arrives through detail rather than through a sentence. The ending is predictable and it is not easy. Who it is for: viewers who like Italian drama that reaches hope through a fantastical device. Who it is not for: anyone who would rather not approach the subject of suicide.