Last Night

"Last Day" is a really good film that shouldn't be watched by persons suffering from clinical depression. The first rate acting from a cast of Canadian regulars really draws the viewer in from the onset, totally absorbing you into their doomed world. I remember getting the same feeling during this film as I did with "The Day After" as both are able to make you forget very quickly that everything will be fine when the movie's finished. The excellent character development, sharp sense of irony, and stylish subtlety of the film create a near perfect calling card for the director whose future work will be much sought after.

Don Mckellar's direction is outstanding in this typically edgy yet slyly romantic Canadian offering. Taking place during the last night on earth, the film expertly follows the lives of a group of people all of whom are dealing with the end of the world in their own inimitable ways. Yes, this is not something original but somehow Mckellar (who also acts in the the film) has fashioned a very watchable tale whose power lies in what we know is going to happen rather than how we get there. With a touch of off-beat Canadian humor the mundane and the surreal are often counterpointed to provide some dark humor, but the film's visual wit and wonderful use of music adds another eerie dimension. Mckellar never tells why the earth is coming to an end but there are enough 'bright' clues to satisfy the curious. It's a shame this film hasn't had more exposure. Perhaps its detached, deadpan wit was too Canadian for many.

i never realized how beautiful a song Guantanamera was, until i heard it in this movie. Whenever i hum the tune nowadays, i can't help but think of Last Night(and the last scene). Ihighly recommend seeing Miracle Mile, after you've see Last Night. It is as close to an American version of this film as you are ever going to see. It is almost just as good. In my opinion, the best line in the movie comes when the old woman makes the very politially incorrect statement, that she tired of hearing about the children,because they are too young to miss anything. If the world weren't ending in a few minutes, you know she wouldn't be exposing her true feelings. I loved this film, beginning to end.

I found LAST NIGHT quite thought-provoking and moving the first time I saw it and its impact on me has only grown over time. This is an amazingly sophisticated and well-executed film for a first-time director. What I find thrilling about it is both the fine balance it finds between ideas and emotional resonance and its sense of tonal unity and control. The images and music have stayed with me for years. Despite the melancholic events of the story and the sense of loss that permeates the film (after all, we are talking about the end of the world here), a mordant sense of humour and finally a romantic, optimistic heart leavens the story's darkness, without pushing the movie into cheap sentimentality or melodrama (Armageddon, anyone?). All this and only one of the most memorable closing images in modern film! Seek it out. It's worth it.

Don McKellar's less pretentious works (here, I exempt the Red Violin, of which I am not particularly fond) always seem to deliver what I need, if not quite what I want. There's always *something* about each work that bugs me a bit; but like the bit of gravel in your hiking boots that makes the trek that little bit more memorable, that little bit more real, I always wonder: would I really have been happier without it?

Last Night -- a subtle, oddly serene film about the world ending, not quite with a bang, not quite with a whimper -- but with a gently rueful, and very human, shrug -- is typical, in this regard. I more than merely like this film -- I believe I'd put it among my top ten favourite works, and I've seen a *lot* of movies -- but as a matter of honesty, I have to warn anyone who hasn't seen it yet, it does have more than a few rough edges.

The acting's a bit uneven, and ranges from borderline painful to actually stunning; I find the occasionally hysterical mother played by Roberta Maxwell painfully cliched. Bujold, on the other hand, you just have to see. Oh is memorable, surprisingly powerful. McMullen I still can't make my mind up about. McKellar is, well, McKellar. I can't help liking the character, even if it does seem a manipulative kinda setup that makes it so.

The script does amble a bit. It's kinda the nature of the story. And McKellar's fondness for clever, throwaway lines sometimes gets the best of him, in my view, both in his own part and in McMullen's.

But these are minor flaws, forgivable (or, as above, perhaps necessary), in an otherwise actually brilliant piece of work.

And overall, the writing, I have to say, is the best I've seen from McKellar yet. This a very delicately balanced script, marvelously restrained. Somehow, McKellar has made a movie in which regret, euphoria, and dread circle each other warily for an hour and a half, without melodrama once rising up out of the mix. There are believable moments of hysteria; they generally punctuate the prevailing current of reflection, resignation, and quiet desperation entirely believably and appropriately.

The ending... I'm not breathing a word about the ending.

Apart from this: it's flawless.

My vote: see it.