A story about a character discovering they have a terminal illness and setting out to live their life as they hadn’t before is a well-trodden premise. Getting it right onscreen is a whole other story. Directed by Isabel Coixet, from a screenplay she co-wrote with Enrico Audenino, and based on the novel by Michela Murgia, Three Goodbyes (Tre ciotole in Italian) isn’t just about Marta’s (Alba Rohrwacher) illness; it’s about the ending of a relationship, the different reactions it elicits, and what one decides to do with their life thereafter.
The film begins with Marta (Alba Rohrwacher), a high school teacher, and her partner, Antonio (Elio Germano), a chef, in the midst of an argument. It sounds like one they’ve had multiple times before, only this one ends their relationship permanently. Antonio up and leaves Marta, who is devastated. For a while, she’s a shell of a person — she doesn’t go out and refuses the help of her sister. Antonio, meanwhile, dives headfirst into his work. When Marta discovers she’s got cancer, she must take a thorough look at her life before it’s over.
Three Goodbyes is a beautifully told story about a woman’s choice to embrace the changes that have altered her life in one way or another.
This summary doesn’t do Three Goodbyes justice. It’s a visceral film that gets to the heart of Marta’s life. We’ve all wondered, at one point or another, what our lives may have been like if we’d realized something sooner, if we’d only decided to leave a relationship that was no longer working. Marta grieves her relationship and the approaching end of her life, but she finds she’s in a much happier place than she would have been had she not received her diagnosis.
This is reflected in the way Marta presents herself, the slight tilt of Rohrwacher’s head, or the way her lips perk up in a semi-smile that expresses her sadness and happiness at once. The way she reacts to the dissolution of her relationship with Antonio is much different. He seems okay at first, but then, when the narrative underscores how bad he feels and how much he misses Marta, we realize how the decision has affected both of them — for better and worse.
Three Goodbyes Is A Love Letter To Life & Self-Discovery
Marta starts to see her life as a fresh start, expressing her feelings to those around her, including a fellow teacher (Francesco Carril), freely and with love in her heart. In many ways, Three Goodbyes is a love letter to life as much as it is about Marta’s self-discovery. She learns how to live the way she didn’t before, and embraces the exploration of what she wants and doesn’t. Here, life is a cool drink of water, and Marta is thirsty for it.
Three Goodbyes is a beautifully told story about a woman’s choice to embrace the changes that have altered her life in one way or another. It’s a grounded, human story that underscores the idea that what may seem inevitable isn’t always the worst thing, even if can feel that way at first. Considering that Murgia died of kidney cancer in 2023 and the story is semi-autobiographical, Three Goodbyes is an intimate, moving exploration of a woman on the verge of unearthing what she wants to live for in the time she has left.
The film could’ve fallen into clichéd rhythms, but Coixet and Audenino handle the story with so much care and thoughtfulness. There’s an emotional resonance that permeates the film and fills your heart with an ache so strong that it’s difficult to walk away without being affected.
Three Goodbyes premiered at the 2025 Toronto Film Festival.
