Last Night (1998)

reviewed by
Harvey S. Karten


LAST NIGHT

Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Lions Gate Films Director: Don McKellar Writer: Don McKellar Cast: David Cronenberg, Tracy Wright, Genevieve Bujold, Roberta Maxwell, Robin Gammel, Trent McMullen, Karen Glave, Jackie Burroughs, Arsinee Khanjian, Don McKellar, Sandra Oh, Sarah Polley, Callum Keith Rennie

As the millennium approaches, the assassination of President Kennedy will undoubtedly make the news magazines as one of the seminal events of the century. Remember the big question whose answer everyone over 40 seems to know, "Where were you on the day that JFK was killed?" In the Canadian movie "Last Night," which was a surprise hit at the 1998 Toronto International Film Festival and won the prestigious Prix de la jeunesse at Cannes, Don McKellar has a more interesting query. "Where were you on the night the world came to an end?" We seem to have some time left before that milestone in the Earth's sorry history, so let's rephrase: "What do you think you'll be doing during the final hours of humankind's existence?" Completing a round-the-world excursion? Smoking your final joint at a week-long party with friends? Huddled and trembling in the corner like a hapless schizophrenic? Mc Kellar--a talented young man who wrote the offbeat "Thirty- two Short Films About Glenn Gould" and the epic, if bloated, "The Red Violin"--suggests otherwise, using a diverse group of Toronto residents to stand in for the world at large.

McKellar's would appear a natural subject for a movie about the ultimate fin de siecle, and yet when you think back to how the Americans treated the theme-- in "Armageddon," "Deep Impact," and the like--you get what Hollywood knows its market wants: explosions, heavy violence, and the use of all the special effects that money can buy to ignite and convulse the screen. Though "Last Night" is not without chaos, the disorder is carried out only by the crazy teen-agers in the cast who do little more than shoot a guy off screen, roll over a couple of vehicles, and cheer amid confetti in Toronto's principal square as the clock ticks the time to termination. McKellar focuses inward to afford us a film whose positive features are its originality, sensitivity, and unpredictability, but whose noble aims are all but overrun by largely mediocre improvisation-style acting and the image of an off-Broadway play adapted to the screen by a guy with a limited budget.

Though they say that in your final moments, your entire life passes before your eyes, the gang of Canadians--some earnest, some quirky--go about their lives as though nothing more depressing than another New Year's Eve were taking place. Chief among the surprises is the activity of Duncan the gas man (David Cronenberg of all people), whose startles the audience by being so utterly matter-of-fact. Duncan spends Earth's final six hours sitting at the phone in the office of his company calling people in the region to assure them that the company expects to supply its product until the very end. The sole comic moments in this otherwise astonishingly ordinary, mundane group are supplied by Craig Zwiller (Callum Keith Rennie), a fun-loving puckish fellow who is the only one in the picture doing what you might expect a fun-loving fellow to do: his aim is to have every kind of sex imaginable during the world's final two months, and he has strewn a check list across every inch of wallspace in his kitchen outlining the specifics. To no one's surprise he finds virtually all the willing partners he needs--people of all races and proclivities, not exluding a fifty-ish virgin (Tracy Wright) and his former French teacher, Mrs. Carlton (Genevieve Bujold).

McKellar is a sort of Canadian Woody Allen: not only directing, writing and acting in his own picture but emulating the American comic with his hangdog face and all-around nerdish demeanor. Though his character, Patrick, shares with Greta Garbo a need to be alone on this of all nights, away from his decent, prayerful family (Roberta Maxwell and Robin Gammel as Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler), he is jolted back to life by an amazing encounter with an intelligent but desperate woman of Asian background, Sandra (Sandra Oh). Sandra is eager to get home to the husband she loves but, realizing that this is not going to happen, spends her final hours discussing life and death with the newly invigorated young man.

While granting that "Last Night" is a welcome change from the types of disaster movies realized in razzle-dazzle manners by Hollywood (here we have no idea how and why the earth is ending nor should we care), this off-beat Canadian entry with a dollop of black humor, a generous serving of philosophy, and an entirely sober concept of what we'll be doing just before the second Big Bang, is done in by its staginess. McKellar might well consider taking his script to prestigious off-Broadway theaters in New York such as the Promenade and the CSC Repertory. "Last Night" is the work of a good playwright, not a screenwriter.

Not Rated.  Running Time: 93 minutes.  (C) 1999
Harvey Karten

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