Das Letzte, was er wollte

'The Last Thing He Wanted' begins with a long narration from Anne Hathaway's character. We have no context for what she is saying, and what she is saying is so incredibly dull that it is nearly impossible to focus on what she is saying for the lengthy duration she rambles on for. This sets the tone for a truly shocking film. I can't remember the last time I saw a film so pretentious and full of itself, while concurrently being of such a low standard.

Where do I begin with the faults this movie contains? The story is all over the place for starts. It darts around like a headless chook running in circles and never settles down for a moment. The movie asks you to follow every little detail hidden in the dialogue, but the dialogue is so bland and uninteresting that is an immensely tough task to do so. If you haven't completely lost interest in this film 15 minutes in then you have the patience of a saint.

I looked up the book this is based on. From what I can tell people were not overly fond of this book. Which begs the question why it got a film when so many incredible books out there have failed to do so. Who read this rambling mess of a story and thought it would make for a great film? Also how did they get a cast as good as they did with a script this bad? I know Anne Hathaway and Ben Affleck's careers have fallen off a cliff, but surely not to this extent? I really did not enjoy this film and even though it's free to watch on Netflix I would suggest it is not worth your time or effort.

Im usually not a look at my phone while watching a movie kind of person but from the beginning of there movie I found myself looking at my phone. Buy the time out was over I thought that maybe I missed a few key parts because I had no idea what the movie was all about. Came to see what others thought and I see that I didn't miss anything because others were just as confused as I was. This movie feels like they forgot to shoot some scenes that told more of the story. Maybe there's more answers in the book This was based off of.

I just have no idea what the story is about. I don't even understand what the leading characters are doing, or indeed who they really are! The events are confusing, and the characters are poorly developed.

Dee Rees, the director of the much acclaimed "Mudbound", offers up her second Netflix collaboration - "The Last Thing He Wanted", a crime thriller based on Joan Didion's novel of the same name. The cast includes such stars as Anna Hathaway, Willem Dafoe & Ben Affleck, also Rosie Perez and Toby Jones. What could possibly go wrong? Apparently a whole lot.

"The Last Thing He Wanted" is, in a certain way, an annoying experience. Its main strength are the acting performances, the highlights include a content and contained lead performance by Anna Hathaway and a well fitted supporting role for Willem Dafoe. Rosie Perez and Ben Affleck were good as well, but, frankly, they weren't given enough to do to really stand out. It's a mildly frustrating watch because the star-studded power seems wasted on an otherwise weak and confused movie. Or rather the story and screenplay. I can only suppose it's an unsuccessful adaptation of the aforementioned novel. Visually, "The Last Thing He Wanted" is shot very well (and uses a peculiar aspect ratio, but with no complaints), looks and sounds like an above average Hollywood-type thriller. But all of that only matters so much on the background of the script which feels like a lot of things and almost none of them are good - it's disjointed, unfocused, doesn't stick together, doesn't carry the weight it should (I'd take a guess though that the filmmakers think otherwise) and just disappoints altogether. While watching I felt like each scene is somehow to be taken on its own terms, every time the previous one didn't feel important much anymore. What I'm trying to say is that a rather simple story telling has gotten all tangled up here and it's a huge black shadow hovering over "The Last Thing He Wanted".

Despite the quite enormous flaw/s, "The Last Thing He Wanted" possesses one or two redeeming qualities. I'll go ahead and assume, probably correctly, that this movie is going to be a bore to a lot of people, but if the viewer commits, it's possible to squeeze out an eyebrow-raising evening 5/10, which is the most I can give it with a clear conscience.

I really wanted to like this movie because the trailer was great and it set the bar high. About a third of the way in I said to my wife, "what the hell is going on?" She didn't know either. Another third into the movie and I repeated the question, which went unanswered because my wife was asleep. Bored by the meandering plot lines that never seem to unite. So, I wasted a few hours of my life watching this but the good news is my wife got an hour or more of decent shut eye.