The last Sign - Das letzte Zeichen

This is truly one of the worst movies I have ever seen, and I've sat through some real stinkers. "The Last Sign" features a deadly combination of wooden acting from Andie MacDowell, overacting on the son's part that soap operas would balk on, and a script that sounds as though it was written by a three-year-old. Consider this line uttered by Mark (Samuel Lebihan) at a baseball game. "Frank's team is winning. Now all the pressure is on Frank." This was followed by shouts to Frank of "Come on! You can do it!" It might look nice on paper, but it sounded so wooden and unrealistic coming out of their mouths that as soon as the movie was over, I wanted to throw the DVD across the room. Let's not forget the fact that too many unbelievable events happened for no reason, and the ending completely forgot to explain them all. Avoid this movie like the plague.

I thought at first that this movie happens in France, because of this green country, old mansion and french actor. But, it is located in Canada that gives me another reason to make a trip there.

The story is not original because a love story beyond grave has already been told in "Ghost" or "Always". But, here, the entire movie relies on the performance of Andie and she's excellent as always. It's not a common thing to have an actress of her age being the focus of an entire movie thus her fans (like me) should be happy.

In addition, it's has been a great pleasure to see again the wonderful "Lois" (Margot Kidder) past her middle life too. She is always so dynamic, mindful and her voice will be forever unique.

However, the script would have been better written because Andie is unfortunately very passive: She witnesses very strange things but never show reaction except fear and anguish and keeps all for herself. This isn't very believable.

At last, the movie is called the "Last Sign" and if I have seen signs, I wonder which is the last because none struck me very much.

I took this movie out of the library free, so at least I didn't waste any money. The acting of all characters was unbelievable. It made me feel it was the directors' first directing job. There are a lot of loose ends that are not explained but by reading the reviews on this web site I now understand things better. Thank you IMDb. I know I did not fall asleep during the movie but that was how I felt since it seemed I missed something. It is not the worst movie I have seen but I definitely could have used the time in a more rewarding way. For some reason I missed picking up on the fact that the husband was an abusive alcoholic. Also whenever the two main characters were together I felt uncomfortable because it was embarrassing to watch such bad acting.

This flick was intended to be a fantasy and horror work and it became a Harlequin Romance .How can a director do such a thing with an actor like Tim Roth?Anyway Roth is a ghost and he is not given a single chance to shine.Samuel LE Bihan's character is the straight handsome gentle -and of course clever-man who loves the heroine's children and who urges her to pick up the pieces and to give them a chance.

When the movie tries to be "scary", it uses all the hackneyed tricks which even the worst directing drudges would not dare :"I've just talked to your son/-But my son is dead " here's the "terrifying "dialog; The "old" colleague (Margot Kidder!) initiating McDowell to spiritualism is also ridiculous.

The last scene takes the biscuit,with its "moving" last sign ,naturally filmed in slow motion.

If you want to see a movie which tackles almost the same subject and brilliantly succeeds ,take FRançois Ozon's "Sous le Sable" starring Charlotte Rampling.(International title:"Under the Sand" )

Kathy is widow that still remembers his husband, and alcoholic and violent man that died in accident car the same day they broke up. She fells guilty and is not able to rebuild her life. The apparition of a new neighbor, Mark, and the strange things that begin to happen in her life will change this. The story is very typical and has anything new, in most moments, it is very stupid, as things are happening without any logic. Most characters are empty, just a name and a body, with no flavour in them. The film develops with bad attempts of being frightening and the ending is, well, it is easy to do it better. It is a film for Sunday afternoon, when nobody is watching TV. But well, it is not very boring.