Call it a Copera.

So rich, so bold, so full blooded, THE LAST NIGHT OF AMORE is like a cop drama turned opera.

With its majestic aerial sweep of Milan at night, bold red titles and Morricone-ish score that begins the film, THE LAST NIGHT OF AMORE preps you for a big emotion, big screen experience.

It’s a familiar trope – after 35-years of service, well-liked policeman Franco Amore is retiring from the force, having never even fired his gun. But on his final night, as his younger and far more vivacious second wife Viviana is preparing a surprise celebration for him, Franco’s world is turned upside down and inside out.

With the hours slipping through the sand-glass threatening to subvert his impeccable service to the police force, Amore takes a late night call from his superior officer summoning him to unprecedented incident.

Amore attends an apocalyptic crime scene, complete with a burnt out car and the body of his best friend and colleague, Dino, one of several casualties after an apparent shootout.

As he arrives to investigate the carnage, it quickly becomes apparent that Franco knows more than he is letting on.

Little by little, layer by layer, director Andrea Di Stefano’s twisty, suspenseful thriller of principles, trust and family ties spectacularly peels the intricacies and implications away, back-grounding events and delivering two hours of rewarding reveals as the film relentlessly charges to an astonishing climax.

The film is brilliantly anchored by Pierfrancesco Favino’s superb performance as Amore, the careful, considerate, compassionate cop whose very admirable attributes deliver him to the verge of disaster.

Technically astute and assured, THE LAST NIGHT OF AMORE is superbly crafted, from the sleek nocturnal cinematography by Guido Michelotti to the propulsive score evocative of Morricone and Moroder by Santi Pulvirenti.

Big, bold, bombastic, THE LAST NIGHT OF AMORE is cop opera brimming with the good, the bad and the ugly.