LAST NIGHT A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 1999 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): ***
When Patrick Wheeler (Don McKellar) was little, he was always down early on Christmas to open his presents. Now grown, he's an hour late to the family gathering. As they sit around the Christmas tree opening their presents, his mother (Roberta Maxwell) reproves him for his lack of punctuality. As happy Christmas music plays through the house, Patrick reminds his mother that it's not actually Christmas but the end of the world.
In LAST NIGHT the world has six hours left before its demise, leaving people the conundrum of what to do with those precious last hours. The intelligent script by McKellar, who also directs and stars in the movie, carefully avoids discussions of why and how the earth will end. We learn that the earth's inhabitants have known about the cataclysmic event for a few months, but that's all we learn. The film concentrates on the small stories, not the large ones. Rather than focusing on governments and reactions around the world, McKellar takes a microscopic view of how some of the citizens of Toronto handle the end of their lives.
The beauty of the production is that it is easy to see parts of yourself in every character's reaction to the crisis. Most people have not contemplated their own deaths, much less the deaths of everyone they know. Think about it for a moment. Assume that the world will end and that you are down to the last few hours. What do you want to do, and with whom do you want to do it? And what if you're single and not currently in a relationship?
Feeling like an intriguing episode from the old television series called "The Twilight Zone," the movie takes a short story approach. There are many characters, but the tightly written drama contains neither subplots about scientists trying to avert the disaster nor any other narrative diversions.
One character, Sandra (Sandra Oh), is trying without much luck to get home to meet her husband before midnight. Not wanting to go gentle into that good night, they plan on blowing each other's brains out right before the end. A reluctant Patrick agrees to help her find transportation.
In a story that is much more a drama than a comedy, Craig Zwiller (Callum Keith Rennie) provides some of the modest laughs. He is a man with a plan. He has a long list of pleasures, mainly sexual, that he's always wanted to experience. With an anal-retentive intensity, he's been checking them off. He's got a few left, like having sex with his old high-school French teacher (Geneviève Bujold), and he's completing the list as fast as he can. Having been at it for months, he appears to be one of the few having any pleasure, what with the apocalypse about to arrive.
Most people react awkwardly, not knowing how to deal with such an uncomfortable and unique situation. David Cronenberg plays a manager at the gas company, who tries to help out his customers by calling each one to assure them that the company will try to keep their gas going as long as possible. He meticulously draws a line through the name of each of his clients. It passes the time for him, almost alone in his big office building.
For some the end of the world is treated as a gigantic celebration like a New Year's Eve party in Times Square. In a cameo, Sarah Polley plays Patrick's sister Jennifer, one of the revelers. If they are going to die, they figure that they might as well party until the end. There are of course looters, and worse, roaming the streets. The story includes this element but doesn't dwell on it.
An absorbing and thought-provoking little film, it grows on you. Light-years from the special effects approach we are used to from Hollywood, the picture engages your mind rather than your gut, making a convincing argument that less can be more when it comes to filmmaking.
LAST NIGHT runs 1:36. It is rated R for sexuality, language and brief violence and would be fine for teenagers.
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
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