THE LAST – A Review by Cynthia Flores
It’s not very often that I see a film with so few redeeming values. On paper, The Last sounds like a good idea for a provocative film. A young couple Josh (AJ Cedeno) and his fiancé Olivia (Jill Durso), both 28-year-old teachers and devout modern Orthodox Jews (she a recent convert from Catholicism), meet his beloved 92-year-old great-grandmother Claire (Rebecca Schull) for a beach outing. After lunch, Claire makes a shattering confession to the two people she loves the most because she found out she is dying of brain cancer. First, even though she was a Jewish Holocaust survivor who emigrated to America, she’s not Jewish. Second, her life was saved by a gynecologist who went on to become one of the Holocaust’s most inhuman monsters and the true father of her one and only child that Clare gave birth to here in the states. And third, she was actually a nurse at the age of 14 working along that gynecologist in Auschwitz. And to top it all off, she still considers herself a member of the Nazi party. With a set up like that this has to be a good movie, right?
Also, casting the much-loved character actress from the hit TV show Wings Rebecca Schull as Clare, the unrepentant great grandmother should have made it at least a film worth checking out. You’ll also recognize Reed Birney as Harry, her son-in-law that plans on making a fortune telling her story in graphic novel form. Mr. Birney has been a successful character actor on TV and in films for years. So any scene he’s in is pretty solid. These two actors are the only redeeming values I was talking about. Ok, maybe the script wasn’t horrible either. It had a lot of meaty ideas to get out. Unfortunately, the rest of the cast are people I have never seen before and after this movie, hope to never see again. The delivery of their lines sucked the life out of most of the film.
If the movie got a re-edit and took out everything except the amazing turn that 90-year-old Rebecca Schull gives as Clare, who layer by layer reveals why she’s unrepentant about her past or why she still considers herself a member of the “Party.” Then this would be a film worth seeing. And while they’re re-editing the movie, maybe they could work on the audio as well. I know independent films are notorious for not spending enough of their budget on the audio department. But since this is writer/director Jeff Lipsky’s seventh film, I would hope he would notice something as significant as the sound being wonky.
Because of the topic, and because of the lead I really wanted to like The Last, but I don’t. If you have to see it just wait till you have a lot of ironing to do and catch it on Netflix. At least then you’ll get something like a chore done out of watching it. I give The Last an F- rating.
Directed by Jeff Lipsky
Written by Jeff Lipsky
Rated NR
Selig Rating F-
Running Time 2hr 3min
Drama
Limited Release June 14th The Angelika Film Center Dallas
Starring: Reed Birney, AJ Cedeno, Jill Durson, Julie Fain Lawerence, Rebecca Schull
The Selig Rating Scale:
A – Excellent movie, well worth the price.
B – Good movie
C – OK movie
D – No need to rush. Save it for a rainy day.
F – Good that I saw it on the big screen but wish I hadn’t paid for it.
