The Last Face

This film tells the story of a female doctor who goes to Africa for a humanitarian mission. She witnesses many horrors on both a personal and transpersonal level.

"The Last Face" starts off strong by depicting an African community that is savaged by war. The humanitarian workers do what they can with limited resources, amid dangers around them. This transpersonal altruism is to be applauded. However, the film then descends into a Tesla romantic drama. I honestly don't care for their relationships. I actually know for a fact that romance is discouraged in these humanitarian projects, so the film loses credibility once romance is touched upon. What makes it worse is that there is this health scare in the middle of the story, and it is not followed up again. It is a pity, as a film about humanitarian missions could have been tear jerking.

OK, so here we go. "The Last Face" premiered during Cannes last year and it got bashed by critics and even booed at. When I heard about that I couldn't really believe it. I mean, a film directed by Sean Penn starring Charlize Theron and Javier Bardem being that bad? It got me curious to watch it. Because I needed to know if it was getting fair reviews or not. It turned out to be a long wait, because It took a year for it to finally come out in other countries. I went in with an open mind. Ready to give it a deserving chance like every movie does. Well, now after seeing it I understand where the problems lied. Although, I must say right off the bat that it's not completely terrible... But it does get messy.

What I didn't like was that it got exaggerated and tried to force the emotion rather then earning it. The romance was predictable and typical. It goes through all the expected beats of "Will they be together or won't they?" The movie uses narration and I thought it was unnecessary. It would have worked better without filling the audience in on the plot so often. I think people can figure it out perfectly well on their own, because it just added to the melodrama. Which was annoying at times with them over sympathizing the story and dragging out moments. It was good whenever it just calmed down and showed some realism. The premise itself is fine. Doctors going to Africa to help people in need. I understood the overall message of mankind's goodwill. The hospital/doctor scenes had some tension to them and they felt very realistic. There's also a lot of gruesome and horrific imagery of people's misfortune in Africa which was affecting. Those were the parts that stuck with me. The characters were able to convince me in many scenes, but unfortunately not the entire way through. It's sad, because Bardem and Theron looks to have put so much effort into this.

Like I said, the story of them being doctors and traveling in Africa to help people was fine. It was the romantic story that dragged on and felt clichéd. They should have toned it down and made the entire movie more realistic and down to earth. I was able to see glimmers of what could have been really good touching moments. Instead we get too much melodrama with musical soundtrack telling you exactly how to feel instead of the story itself making you feel something. Although there was some music I liked in it: The local African songs and the Piano tracks towards the end. There are scenes that are good. Scenes that feel like real life stories with heart to them. The thing is that we get so few of them spread across the movie. I was never able to truly appreciate those scenes so well because the following part would often drag it down again.

Without spoiling anything, the final moments were finally able to get some emotion across. The ending was my favorite part. It made me finally care for what was going. It was a little too late. But hey, at least it was something. The movie leaves you reflecting on life a little bit. But not nearly as much as I'm sure the filmmakers wanted. It does, however have its moments that work. And for that I will give it points. The movie is not nearly as awful as some people are making it out to be. It's just average. If you are looking for something to pass the time with, then this will work fine. Just don't expect much. It's watchable, but nothing memorable.

What might have been a heartfelt African tragedy falters under the heavy hand of Sean Penn who does here, what he once claimed Terrence Malick was guilty of: (with words to the effect... 'Creating something that looked good on paper but failing to transcribe it to film'. Shoddy hand held photography, poor composition, disjointed editing - with scenes that should have been short, left long, and visa-versa. Sound was another problem, people whisper - with it all being so low, as not to be heard. Eye rolling arty shots without purpose - a story that's on again-off again, with performers doing what they can but, being left all at sea by their overindulging director.

A movie maker seemingly pushing his political views - at the expense of third world persons lost to the corruption within their own leaders and an uncaring world - surrounded by repugnant violence (some of the violence is realistically shocking) Mr Penn may (or may not) have his heart in the right place but tends to allow the shadowy edge of politics to blind his visionary vocation. At one point some innocent victims exclaim 'In the name of Jesus' - the people there to help them reply: 'what about in OUR name'? Maybe that's just the point - take Christ's unconditional love from these poor souls and they have exactly nothing! - So, what does the story teller dislike most, the love or the forgiveness? Some music choices on the sound track help to a small degree but sadly, self importance does not, a good movie make. Like other Penn movies this seems to run forever, needlessly.

The general low rate given to the film can only be explained by the prejudice to the theme, the Western disinterest in debating Africa. Surely the movie is not so weak to have a 4.7 rating. Anyway, the movie is hard, very hard to watch. It shows one side of African life that no one in the West cares to know, much less give way to. And though a lot of people might think that the realism that Sean Penn employs in some scenes is exaggerated, in fact the real hell out there is much worse than in the movie. In addition we have the hard life of the doctors, impotent in the face of so much cruelty, and who still have to maintain the dignity and the healthy mind to continue his heroic work. Not everyone can handle it. Good performance of Charlize and Javier, in a cast in general quite correct. Unfortunately not everything is perfect and the direction sometimes is irregular, breaking the tense and distressing rhythm of the movie with romantic moments. Still I give 7.0.

Great acting but jumps around a lot and was so hard to follow at times I got bored and gave up. Definitely deals with a tough, really unsettling topic so it's not for the faint of heart.