Winner of an audience award at Sundance 2003, together with five David di Donatellas (Italian "Oscars"), including Best Director for Gabriele Muccino, The Last Kiss is an involving and engrossing story, set in Rome, about a group of thirtysomething Italians and the lives they lead.

Carlo (Stefano Accorsi) has a good job, a nice girlfriend (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), who has just become pregnant, and it looks like he's about to settle down in that happy state of sexual harmony. However, he doesn't want to give up his freedom, especially when he sees his friends playing the field. Commitment is altogether too big a step.

From a chance meeting at a wedding party, he starts an affair with a young girl (Martina Stella), barely out of her teens. His best friend (Giorgio Passotti) is in a rocky marriage, with all the disturbances that come with a first child, and Carlo's future mother-in-law is looking for someone new, as her husband makes it perfectly clear that he's not interested anymore.

For those that liked Lantana, The Last Kiss will have the same magnetic appeal. All the characters are believable. Writer/director Muccino has come up with a good story and shoots it Altman-style, with interweaving scenes, a concentration on group dialogue and various storylines going on at once.

The way in which Carlo tries to balance his time between the long-term girlfriend and his affair is frighteningly believable and you know from the start that this is a dangerous game he's playing. The film reflects the fickle nature of love, how relationships lose their buzz and how some are content with what they have, while others yearn for something more, regardless of the consequences.

It is easy to understand why The Last Kiss was the second-highest grossing film in Italy last year. It is a well made, destructive dissection of infidelity, that reflects the reality of sex in the city.