Franco Amore (Pierfrancesco Favino) is a good cop, having never even fired a shot in 35 years of honorable service. Yet that facade begins to crumble on the night of his retirement when word comes from the police chief that his partner, Dino (Francesco Di Leva), has been found dead in a perplexing roadside shootout. Diamonds of a dubious origin are involved, there’s a whiff of corruption in the air, and it quickly becomes apparent that Franco is in over his head as he plunges into the longest night of his career.
The Last Night of Amore is the latest white-knuckle crime thriller from Andrea Di Stefano, director of Escobar: Paradise Lost and The Informer. Here, Di Stefano channels the sleek nighttime visuals of Michael Mann’s Collateral while telling a story that’s as twisty as they come, providing a fresh spin on familiar cop movie tropes. Yet it’s Favino’s performance as the old-school cop with his back against the wall that gives this otherwise hard-boiled film a beating heart.––Cara Cusumano
