Last Moment of Clarity

The producers of 'Last Moment of Clarity' must have been absolutely stoked when they managed to land Samara Weaving in their film. She's certainly a rising star and is getting some pretty good credits attached to her name. The problem they found themselves with though was that Weaving isn't really the star of the movie, or at least her character isn't. Instead the much lesser known Zach Avery is the star of the show and sadly he doesn't quite have the acting chops to do that just yet. The result is a bit of a wasted opportunity. You can see the potential the script had and why Weaving was enticed to sign on, but the actual final product is a messy shadow of what it could've been.

The first half of the film is a mystery, followed by the second half which is more a regulation thriller. If I had to pick which half I preferred more it was probably the first half. It at least had some curiosity behind it and had you wondering what tricks the film had up its sleeve. The second half, while not bad, does feel a little more run-of-the-mill and like you've seen it a thousand times before.

The film moved at a good click and I never really felt bored by it. There were a lot of technical flaws and if that sort of stuff bothers you then you might struggle a little with this film. If you are able to put that sort of stuff aside though and just enjoy the story for what it is then you might enjoy this one. It's not a film I suspect I'll remember, but while I was watching it it was a decent enough time.

I thought this could be something special because Samara Weaving is in it, but I was wrong. I really like Weaving, she's my favorite up and coming actress, but this film... Sorry, but it's not good at all. This is a very boring thriller that simply doesn't work. Samara's role was nothing special, and Brian Cox was in it for just a few minutes and did nothing. The lead actor didn't make a strong impression and he's in every scene, and his acting is very bland. And the plot... Well, it really didn't make much sense. Skip this one.

Colin and James Krisels directional debut prides itself as a Hitchcockian thriller - and it is - threadbare, soft, lazy, the 'lite' version. "Last Moment of Clarity" showcases a great cast for an indie movie, the growingly popular Samara Weaving, Zach Avery in the lead role, one my personal favorites from "Mr. Robot" - Carly Chaikin, and also veterans Brian Cox and Udo Kier in roles worth perhaps a couple minutes of screen time. The ensemble, plus the concept was enough to pull me in this endeavor, but it wasn't that easy to stay in it.

Meet Zach Avery's Sam, a troubled guy living a small and contained life in Paris, dealing with painful memories about his girlfriend Georgia's (Samara Weaving) death in a house fire three years back in New York. One day at the movies he sees an actress bearing an uncannily similar resemblance to Georgia, and step by step the obsession takes Sam to Los Angeles in search of this actress. There he meets the helpful Kat (Carly Chaikin), who's my favorite character of this movie, though I might just have a long time crush on her or something. And the mystery slowly unravels... Slowly, and worse yet, in predictable ways. The atmosphere (and pacing) tends to be monotonous, characters and dialogue - also action - are pretty clichéd or have issues with realisticity (in which the movie really tries to ground itself), or just appear cheap. Having said that, the sum of it all works at least on a mediocre level. A good Hitchcockian thriller succeeds at making you think up some theories and guess what's going to happen, in regards of this "Last Moment of Clarity" fails a lot and I found myself bummed out by the high predictability factor. It's not all that bad though - once I got to feel for the characters a little, I was hoping for the very ending I got.

The cast, although wearing forgettable and thin characters, is what did it the most for me. "Last Moment of Clarity" is 80% melodrama, and only then it's a thriller, and I'd say the thriller parts were arguably the worst parts. Though some of the drama feels like just shameless pandering, other pieces, with all their luscious romance and subtle relationship antics, worked. On one hand, it feels like the actors sailed through a tired movie tiredly, but perhaps it's the best possible balance among all the ingredients. Zach Avery provides the troubled lead who kind of lacks emotion, Samara Weaving's character's lesser than You probably think, but hungry guy fans will see the scenes they wish for, and my personal favorite - Carly Chaikin - has a character that's the easiest to sympathize with, even objectively, I'm sure. I was expecting more Brian Cox, but be warned, he's there for a short while, and only to show off a crazy accent.

On a technical level, "Last Moment of Clarity" can feel somewhat drab and ineffectively gloomy, but it is cinematographed, edited and colored well enough. Let's not forget this is an indie feature which's largest chunk of budget very likely went to the names on the poster. Original score's pretty whack though, didn't think that in the first half, but it's really rather flat.

"Last Moment of Clarity" has aimed higher than it could hit & the sum of it lands in the bowl of mediocrities, but there are flavors to enjoy, provided You liked anything of what I just talked about. My rating: 5/10.

The acting, production quality is all good. It is also a decent story. Unfortunately, the movie comes across a bit flat, without mystery or that tension that gives a movie its interest and "pull". The movie is about Sam, who becomes convinced a complete stranger is actually a woman he once loved. Sam goes to extraordinary lengths to find out whether the stranger is indeed his former love-interest. Once you figure out whether the object of Sam's obsession is or isn't who Sam believes she is, there is really not much tension or suspense left in the story. So I tend to agree with other reviewers who found the movie flat & a bit dull.

Very slow and boring and the movie's events are not logical at all. They couldve made a very nice movie