|
If you’re a documentary aficionado, the title Last Breath might sound familiar to you. Back in 2019, there was a documentary with that name about a harrowing deep-sea rescue, and now, one of the directors behind it has turned the story into a feature film. I haven’t seen that documentary myself, but it was generally well received (according to Rotten Tomatoes), so I was interested to see this fictionalized version of the tale. Granted, I wasn’t sure if it would be any good, but the premise sounded interesting enough, so I decided to give this movie a shot.
Last Breath was directed and co-written by Alex Parkinson, and it stars Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu, and Finn Cole as Duncan, Dave, and Chris, three men with one of the most dangerous jobs on the planet. They’re saturation divers, which means they travel to the bottom of the sea to work on undersea pipelines. On this particular dive, the trio head to the bottom of the North Sea, but soon after they begin working, something terrible happens. The ship that lowers them down gets caught in a horrible storm, and Chris’s connection to the diving vessel snaps. He gets stranded 1,000 feet below sea level, and his teammates have to do everything possible to rescue him before it’s too late. As you can probably guess from that plot synopsis, Last Breath is a thrill-a-minute pressure cooker, but it doesn’t start out that way. The film actually spends about a half hour establishing its major players and introducing us to their harrowing profession, and that time is supposed to help viewers forge an emotional connection with these characters before the story begins in earnest. Unfortunately though, it doesn’t entirely work. To be fair, the three lead stars do an admirable job with the material they’re given. Finn Cole is the charismatic nice guy you can’t help but like, Simu Liu exudes a silent strength that shines despite his sparse dialogue, and Woody Harrelson has the characteristically playful, almost whimsical demeanor that makes him such a beloved movie star. But despite those solid performances, Last Breath still struggles on this front. The film just doesn’t develop its main trio beyond their one-line descriptions, so all three of these men end up feeling a bit more like cliched stereotypes than real, flesh-and-blood human beings. Those thinly drawn characterizations make it difficult for us to care about these guys, so the story has to work extra hard to get us invested. In most films, that flaw would be nearly fatal, but somehow, Last Breath manages to overcome it. Once Chris’s connection snaps, this movie becomes the nonstop thrill ride we all expected. Just about everything that can go wrong does go wrong, so Duncan, Dave, and the ship’s crew have to pull out all the stops to rescue their lost comrade. I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t entirely sure if director Alex Parkinson would be able to maintain that tension long enough to sustain an entire feature film, but he somehow pulls it off. The suspense lasts for about forty-five minutes, and for almost that entire time, you’ll be on the edge of your seat. Last Breath is a pretty impressive piece of nail-biting filmmaking, and it even manages to overcome the biggest hurdle a movie like this has to face. Since it’s based on a true story, you’re already pretty sure Chris is going to make it out alive no matter how grim things get, and that could’ve easily sapped the thrills of all their power. Alex Parkinson needed to find a way to make you believe Chris’s fate was genuinely uncertain, and for my money, he succeeded. Granted, I was still pretty sure the guy was going to survive, but there were a few times when my confidence started to waver a bit. I found myself wondering if this story was going to end up being a tragedy, and…well, I’ll let you watch the movie yourself to find out what really happens. Suffice it to say that Last Breath is a truly effective thriller, but it’s not just an empty exercise in deep-sea tension. There’s a point to this story, and the way I see it, it’s all about the value of human life. When the characters realize that one of their companions is in mortal danger, you can almost feel the concern oozing out of them. It’s evident in the way they look and the way they talk, so you know they genuinely value this man’s life. What’s more, they can’t rescue the guy without putting their own lives at risk, but they do it anyway. He’s that important, and if you’re a Christian, you can’t help but think of Jesus’ parable about leaving the ninety-nine sheep to go look for the one that was lost. Granted, it’s not a perfect fit, but Last Breath perfectly embodies the parable’s teaching that we’re valuable as individuals, not just as parts of a larger whole. There’s even a scene that literally celebrates Chris’s life, and in a total coincidence, my allergies flared up and my eyes began to water during that touching moment. In a world where abortion, the death penalty, and a whole host of other anti-life practices are so dishearteningly prevalent, it’s just really refreshing to see a film that so clearly shines a light on the often unpopular truth that human life matters. It’s a message our culture desperately needs to hear, so despite struggling a bit with its characters, Last Breath still gets a thumbs up from me.
0 Comments
I’ve had my eye on the PTSD-centric dramedy My Dead Friend Zoe for a while. Some critics I follow caught the movie at its festival premiere last year, and they loved it. They couldn’t wait for more people to see this film, so naturally, I began counting down the days until its wide theatrical release. I bought a ticket for opening weekend as soon as I got the chance, and now that I’ve finally seen the movie, I’m happy to report that it totally lives up to the hype.
My Dead Friend Zoe was directed and co-written by Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, and it stars Sonequa Martin-Green, Natalie Morales, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Morgan Freeman, and Ed Harris. In the film, Merit and Zoe were best friends in the army, and now that they’ve returned home, their friendship is as strong as ever…well, sort of. Zoe is actually dead, but Merit still sees her everywhere she goes. These visions are a manifestation of the woman’s PTSD, and they prevent her from leading a healthy civilian life. Unfortunately, she refuses to talk to anybody about it, but that begins to change when her grandfather, also a veteran, gets diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Merit becomes the man’s caretaker, and that family connection, along with a budding romance, gives her the strength to finally open up about her struggles. From that plot synopsis, you might surmise that My Dead Friend Zoe packs quite the emotional punch, and you’d be right. In fact, it hits even harder than the already weighty premise suggests, but I can’t tell you why without spoiling the movie’s ending. This is seriously one of the most hard-hitting films I’ve seen in a while, and that power starts with the stellar characters and the amazing performers who bring them to life. Let’s go through the main cast one by one. To begin, Morgan Freeman plays the head of Merit’s veterans’ support group, and he’s just as good as you’d expect. This guy seems to play the same character in every movie, but somehow, he makes it work. He just has a velvety smooth, almost hypnotic quality that makes it impossible to look away whenever he’s on screen, and that magnetism is on full display here. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, Ed Harris plays Merit’s grandfather as a cantankerous and stubborn old man who refuses to accept that he can’t live on his own anymore, and while his performance is very different from Freeman’s, it’s just as good. He even brought back memories of my own thick-headed grandfathers, so despite the character’s abrasive demeanor, Harris imbued him with a familiarity that won me over instantly. Next, we have to talk about Utkarsh Ambudkar. He plays Merit’s love interest, a retirement home manager named Alex, and he’s incredibly charismatic. Ambudkar imbues the character with a charming playfulness that’s an absolute joy to watch, and his interactions with lead star Sonequa Martin-Green are tinged with just enough awkwardness that you totally buy their mutual attraction as well as their nervousness at this new venture. And speaking of Sonequa Martin-Green, she’s quite possibly the best thing about My Dead Friend Zoe. Everything about this woman, from her speech to her facial expressions, carries the weight of the trauma she’s experienced, so after a while, you can almost feel her pain yourself. On top of that, her chemistry with Natalie Morales, the actress who plays Zoe, is off the charts. You’ll have no trouble believing that these women are best friends, so whenever they’re on screen together, you’ll be sure to get a kick out of their lighthearted banter. In fact, Zoe’s sarcastic comments to her living friend are the main source of humor in My Dead Friend Zoe. Since she’s not really there, she’s able to say things no living person could ever get away with, and Morales’s delivery is pitch-perfect. To be fair, her one-liners never quite made me laugh out loud, but they almost always elicited a silent chuckle that brought a big smile to my face. It’s the kind of comedy that perfectly complements the weighty themes without overpowering them, and trust me, this film needs the comic relief. Like I said, My Dead Friend Zoe gets pretty heavy, and while I can’t spill all the beans, I can say that the story deals with universal human experiences we can all relate to. At its core, this movie is about grief, trauma, and the importance of human connection. Merit is struggling because she lost her best friend, and to cope with the pain, her mind has to recreate that broken connection. What’s more, Merit begins to heal when she starts to let people back into her life, so the message is clear. Sure, My Dead Friend Zoe plays these themes in a military key, so they’re going to resonate more with veterans and current members of the armed forces, but even those of us who’ve never served can see a bit of ourselves in Merit’s story. Almost everyone has lost someone close to them, and if you haven’t yet, you will at some point. It’s just part of life, and we all need someone to lean on when times get tough. That’s the basic message of this movie, but like I said before, there’s a bit more to it than that. There’s a twist here that I don’t think anyone will see coming, and it makes My Dead Friend Zoe a poignant call to action on an important issue that doesn’t get talked about nearly enough. I obviously can’t tell you what that issue is, but I can assure you that it’s one we Catholics can and should get behind. It’s the cherry on top of this amazing cinematic experience, so My Dead Friend Zoe is one of the best films of the year so far. It’s the perfect combination of likable characters, excellent comedy, and weighty themes, so if you’re looking for something that’s just as entertaining as it is meaningful, this is almost certainly the movie for you. I’ve been anxiously awaiting The Monkey ever since the film was first announced. It’s based on a short story by my favorite author, Stephen King, and even more importantly, it was made by the guy who wrote and directed last year’s horror hit Longlegs. That movie captured the essence of evil in a way most horror films can only dream of, so when the credits began to roll, I immediately started looking forward to the director’s next project. I obviously had no idea what it would be, but I knew I had to watch it as soon as it hit theaters. That time is finally upon us, and after catching an early screening of the movie, I’m sad to report that it’s incredibly disappointing.
The Monkey was written and directed by Osgood Perkins, and it stars Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Christian Convery, and Colin O'Brien. In the film, two twin boys, Hal and Bill, stumble upon an instrument of pure evil. They find a toy monkey left behind by their father, but as you might be able to guess, this thing isn’t just a toy. It has the power to cause random, Final Destination-esque deaths, and no matter what the brothers do to get rid of it, it always finds its way back to them. On paper, that might sound like an intriguing premise for a horror movie, but a film can’t get by on its premise alone. It has to build an intriguing story around its bare-bones concept, and that’s where The Monkey falls short. This movie is about an hour and forty minutes, and for the first hour or so of its runtime, it doesn’t have much of a discernible plot. It’s basically just a string of deaths caused by the titular monkey, and what little story there is (even in the final forty minutes) feels more like an excuse to showcase these gruesome kills than a worthwhile narrative in its own right. To make matters worse, none of the characters in this film are particularly likable. Few of them stick around long enough to make much of an impression, and the ones that do are as bland and one-dimensional as you’d expect from a story this light on plot. The closest there is to a bright spot is actor Theo James’s performance as the adult versions of Bill and Hal, but even he’s very much a mixed bag. On the one hand, his performance as the socially reclusive Hal is quite good. The guy has an awkward, almost nerdy air about him, so James makes you believe that he really does try to avoid people as much as possible. Unfortunately, that’s all there is to the character, so even though James’s performance is admirable, Hal still ends up being as flat as everyone else. In contrast, Bill is a complete trainwreck. He’s just as uninteresting as his monotonous brother, but this time, we don’t even get a good performance. He feels more like a caricature than a real person, so whenever he was on screen, I simply couldn’t take the movie seriously. On top of those boring characters, The Monkey also features some pitch-black humor. The deaths and their surrounding circumstances are often played for laughs, and if you don’t enjoy this kind of comedy, you’re probably going to be very uncomfortable for most of the film. Personally, I enjoy dark humor, so I got a few good chuckles from these gags, but only a few. Most of them simply fell flat in my eyes, so while a number of people in my theater laughed out loud at almost all the jokes, I mostly just sat there with a disappointed look on my face. Next, we have to talk about the horror in The Monkey. If you’re familiar with Osgood Perkins, or even if you just saw Longlegs, you’re probably expecting this movie to be an intensely atmospheric slow burn, but that’s not at all the case. Sure, the filmmaker’s characteristic atmosphere pops up every now and again, but it never stays for very long. It’s just there for a few brief shots, and then it disappears. Instead, this film takes a much more slasher-esque approach to its horror. Like a typical slice-and-dice flick, this one is all about the kills. It revels in dispatching its victims in gruesome and creative ways, and it expects the audience to enjoy this kind of low-brow horror as well. To be fair, I’m not completely against this brand of terror. As I said in my Heart Eyes review, I’m generally not big on slashers, but there are a number of exceptions (including Heart Eyes itself!). I just don’t like slashers that are all about the kills. I need something more–like an intriguing story, likable characters, or knee-slapping comedy–but The Monkey doesn’t have any of that. The horror is the only thing this movie does well, but unfortunately, it’s not the kind of horror I typically enjoy on its own. Last but not least, I want to talk about the message of The Monkey. Given my problems with the film, you might not expect it to have any sort of deeper meaning, but it actually does. The randomness and unfairness of the toy monkey’s kills is supposed to be an allegory for the way death operates in the real world, and if you ask me, it’s pretty spot-on. Sure, we Catholics believe that God can bring good out of even the greatest of tragedies, but that doesn’t mean he actually causes these tragedies. He simply uses them the way a master painter can incorporate stray marks into a beautiful picture, but on their own, they really are random and unfair. There’s a reason the Hail Holy Queen calls this life a “valley of tears,” and on a thematic level, The Monkey absolutely nails that uncomfortable truth. But a good message can’t salvage a bad movie, so at the end of the day, I have to say that The Monkey left me sorely disappointed. It was one of my most anticipated films of the year, but its overemphasis on creative deaths, to the detriment of the characters and the story, makes for one of the most unsatisfying cinematic experiences of the year so far. |
Jp Nunezis a longtime film buff and theology nerd with master's degrees in theology and philosophy from Franciscan University of Steubenville. His favorite movie genres are horror, superheroes, and giant monsters. Archives
April 2025
Categories |
RSS Feed