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By Dan Leone

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IN THE WORLD of Italian cinema, it seems temptation is everywhere and infidelity is a fact of life. Writer-director Gabriele Muccino draws on this view, rooted in the glamorous Italian films of the '50s through the early '70s, in The Last Kiss, a tender look at the realities of growing up and settling down. Kiss is, however, a clearly modernized take on the traditional Italian sex comedy. Less about raw lust (though there's no shortage here) than about the restlessness that permeates contemporary relationships, Muccino's well-written script is marked by strong, defiant women who alternately love and hate fear-stricken men. Which is not to say that the outspoken, "modern" female characters in this story are any more skilled in the art of mutual affection than their male counterparts. In fact, the film ultimately paints love as a state of perpetual confusion and repeatedly asks whether it is ever possible to recognize happiness once you've found it. Muccino accomplishes this through the interwoven stories of a group of college buddies on the verge of hitting 30: Carlo (Stefano Accorsi, also of the Italian import The Son's Room) is secretly petrified of marrying his pregnant girlfriend, Paolo (Claudio Santamaria) can't seem to get over his domineering ex, and Alberto (Mario Cocci) is beginning to question the value of an endless string of one-night stands. Well-structured and well-acted, The Last Kiss, which won five David awards, Italy's equivalent of the Oscar, deftly canvasses the gamut of human emotions, from the joys of childbirth to the dizzying fear that somehow, somewhere, a better life is passing us by. (Meryl Cohen)