Coming Soon: Three Goodbyes (2025) by Isabel Coixet: A tender meditation on endings, memory, and the quiet persistence of love

When small arguments reveal infinite distances

Three Goodbyes (2025), originally titled Tre ciotole, is a melancholic Italian-Spanish drama directed by Isabel Coixet and written by Enrico Audenino, Michela Murgia, and Coixet herself. The film stars Alba Rohrwacher, Elio Germano, and Sarita Choudhury in a deeply emotional story adapted from Murgia’s celebrated final novel, written while she was facing her terminal illness.

The film follows Marta (Rohrwacher) and Antonio (Germano), a couple whose seemingly trivial argument leads to their sudden breakup. But through the structure of three interconnected stories—or “goodbyes”—Coixet reveals how loss, illness, and forgiveness intertwine in quiet, everyday gestures.

A film about the fragility of connection and the inevitability of parting, Three Goodbyes premiered at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, earning critical praise for its lyrical visual style and emotional authenticity.

Why to Recommend: A graceful journey through love, loss, and acceptance

• A universal story told with delicate intimacy: Three Goodbyes captures the tender banality of human life—how relationships don’t end in grand gestures but in small silences and missed glances. Coixet’s understated direction turns the ordinary into something poetic.The film’s strength lies in how it makes simple interactions—sharing a meal, sitting in silence—feel as monumental as heartbreak.

• Powerful performances rooted in quiet emotion: Alba Rohrwacher delivers one of her most moving performances, embodying both strength and fragility, while Elio Germano brings restless depth to Antonio. Their chemistry oscillates between warmth and ache, capturing the complexity of a love that lingers beyond goodbye.Sarita Choudhury adds grace and world-weariness, completing a triangle of perspectives on loss and renewal.

Where to watch (industry professionals): https://pro.festivalscope.com/film/three-goodbyes

Link IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35705184/

Link Review: https://variety.com/2025/film/reviews/three-goodbyes-review-alba-rohrwacher-1236544515/

About movie: https://cineuropa.org/en/film/483338/

What is the Trend Followed: European introspection and emotional realism

Three Goodbyes continues the modern European emotional realism trend—films where the drama unfolds in silences, glances, and unspoken histories.

• The “emotional domestic epic”: Following filmmakers like Joanna Hogg and Alice Rohrwacher, Coixet crafts tension from stillness rather than spectacle.

• Existential storytelling: The narrative reflects the European literary tradition of examining life through death, echoing works like The Hours and Another Year.

• The feminine gaze on love and mortality: Coixet, as in My Life Without Me and The Bookshop, uses a woman’s emotional lens to explore how endings become acts of self-discovery.

• Cinematic intimacy: The film favors close-ups and handheld realism, emphasizing faces, gestures, and the delicate passage of time.

• Quiet existentialism: The story moves away from closure, embodying the modern cinematic trend of “unfinished emotional narratives”—where goodbyes are never final, only evolving.

Summary: The film aligns with the European wave of quiet emotional introspection, where personal loss becomes a mirror for universal meaning.

Director’s Vision: Intimacy as resistance to forgetting

• Isabel Coixet directs with her signature blend of emotional restraint and moral clarity. Her camera watches, never intrudes, capturing how people live through heartbreak rather than simply narrate it.

• Visual empathy: Every shot feels like a memory—fragile, fading, yet beautiful. Rome and Trastevere are rendered not as backdrops but as emotional landscapes.

• A cinematic elegy for Michela Murgia: Coixet honors the late writer’s introspective tone, transforming her reflections on illness and impermanence into a humane meditation on love’s endurance beyond life.

• The art of the ordinary: Coixet finds meaning in silence, stillness, and the rituals of daily life—a bowl of soup, a morning routine, a final conversation.

Themes: Endings, resilience, and the quiet weight of connection

• The fragility of love: The film examines how even the most stable bonds can unravel under the lightest pressures—and how those ruptures reveal deeper truths.

• Death and continuity: Rather than viewing death as conclusion, it portrays it as a shift—a redefinition of what love means after parting.

• Memory as survival: Each “goodbye” becomes an act of remembering, a way of carrying another person forward.

• Emotional honesty: The story encourages acceptance of imperfection—learning to love without idealizing, to grieve without despair.

• Female strength and vulnerability: Marta’s journey embodies emotional courage—the ability to face endings with tenderness, not resistance.

Key Success Factors: Performance, tone, and emotional craftsmanship

• Alba Rohrwacher’s luminous restraint: Her portrayal of Marta feels lived-in, capturing the inner tension between endurance and surrender.

• Cinematography as poetry: The camera lingers on sunlight, texture, and domestic detail, evoking both the weight and grace of everyday life.

• Coixet’s direction: Her empathy for complex women transforms simple stories into profound reflections.

• Adaptation with integrity: The screenplay distills Murgia’s philosophical prose into cinematic rhythm without losing its soul.

Awards & Nominations: Critical acclaim for emotional depth

Premiering at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, Three Goodbyes earned widespread praise for its screenplay and lead performances. It received several nominations at European festivals for Best Director, Best Actress, and Adapted Screenplay, highlighting its emotional precision and lyrical realism.

Critics Reception: Subtle, soulful, and gracefully humane

• Variety: “Alba Rohrwacher dazzles in Isabel Coixet’s humane, heartfelt drama—a luminous portrait of love’s quiet unraveling.”

• The Hollywood Reporter: “A tender adaptation that finds poetry in the ordinary and comfort in sorrow.”

• Cineuropa: “Coixet turns goodbye into a cinematic language—every silence, every gesture, every breath carries meaning.”

• La Repubblica: “A beautiful tribute to Michela Murgia’s spirit—gentle, sad, and affirming.”

Summary: Critics praise Three Goodbyes as a deeply felt reflection on love and mortality, with Coixet at her most introspective and Rohrwacher at her most radiant.

Reviews: A quiet masterpiece of emotional truth

• Festival viewers: Called it “a film that heals slowly,” admiring its balance of melancholy and warmth.

• Readers of Murgia’s novel: Praised its faithfulness to the book’s tone, saying it “captures the author’s voice with cinematic grace.”

• Audience consensus: “A film not to be watched, but absorbed—a gentle reminder that love survives in how we say goodbye.”

Summary: Three Goodbyes resonates as a cinematic balm—deeply human, tenderly sad, yet profoundly alive.

Release Date on Streaming: Early 2026 (Europe)

After its theatrical run, Three Goodbyes will stream on Netflix Italy and Filmin, expanding to global platforms by mid-2026. Its universal emotional themes make it a likely favorite among arthouse and streaming audiences alike.

Theatrical Release: A cross-European emotional odyssey

• Release date: October 9, 2025 (Italy)

• Runtime: 2h (120 min)

• Countries of origin: Italy, Spain

• Language: Italian

• Production companies: Cattleya, Ruvido Produzioni, BartlebyfilmThree Goodbyes represents the best of contemporary European collaboration—emotionally intelligent, artistically restrained, and culturally rich.

Movie Trend: Contemporary relationship minimalism

The film continues the European trend of relationship minimalism, focusing on the emotional microcosms of couples in transition. Like Scenes from a Marriage and Past Lives, it dismantles romantic illusions with tenderness rather than cruelty. The narrative rhythm—quiet, elliptical, reflective—embodies the new wave of intimate emotional storytelling.

Social Trend: Love, grief, and the acceptance of impermanence

In an era marked by emotional burnout and fleeting digital intimacy, Three Goodbyes reconnects audiences with the slow rhythm of human connection. It speaks to a collective need for emotional authenticity, exploring how we cope with change, illness, and mortality without losing tenderness. The film mirrors a broader movement in society toward mindful vulnerability—facing life’s endings not with denial, but with grace.

Final Verdict: Gentle, profound, and unforgettable

Three Goodbyes is a luminous reflection on the inevitability of loss and the quiet beauty of endurance. With Isabel Coixet’s compassionate direction and Alba Rohrwacher’s transcendent performance, it transforms heartbreak into wisdom.Verdict: A graceful, poetic drama—a film about how every ending, if faced with love, becomes its own beginning.