The Last Lullaby

I came across this movie on Amazon streaming, their listing says it is a 2021 movie. I thought "cool, a brand new Tom Sizemore movie." I don't know why they do that because it clearly is a 2008 movie. Still I found it to be an interesting viewing.

Sizemore is a retired hit man, by what we witness a very good one. By chance he witnesses a young lady being hassled by an ex boyfriend in a nightclub parking lot at night. He takes appropriate action, brings the lady to safety. However that gets the attention of the man who wants a job done, a hit on a lady and it will be worth $1,000,000. He takes it somewhat reluctantly.

Then something happens, he gets to know the lady, finds out she is a decent person, learns her backstory, and at some point decides he must reverse the hit. The people who hired him are the real bad guys.

Sizemore is good as he usually is. The story is well written and there is some pleasure in seeing the bad guys get what is coming to them.

"The Last Lullaby" opens with a wonderful shot of the always captivating Tom Sizemore looking even MORE intriguing than usual: staring up at a ceiling fan in an eerily lit bedroom in the middle of the night, unable to sleep. So, he does what he usually does when this happens: gets in his car and trolls the local convenience store.

And this is where the film really lost me: he encounters a group of dim-witted thugs virtually broadcasting the fact that they're holding a girl hostage nearby. Sizemore, being the proverbial hit man in "retirement," naturally follows them to check it out. I know that it's sometimes hard to make every event in a script seem plausible or organic, but if you're going to toss the audience a whopper like this one, save it for the last reel. This development really sabotaged the film for me. If it didn't for you, I envy you.

Seriously...there's a lot of great stuff here. Yes, the basic plot has been done to death, but seldom with the realism and warmth of the performances given by Sizemore and Sasha Alexander, who plays the woman he's hired to kill. I hesitate to reveal more of the plot because this film needs all the surprises it can spring on you.

The plot is the biggest boner here, and not just at the start. As Sizemore gets closer to Alexander, of course he begins to develop an attachment to her. This leads us into some situations that are so over-the-top and obvious, there's no way Alexander could not suspect his true motives. This is "explained" later on in the film, but to ill effect.

I really wanted to like this film more because, overall, the acting is exemplary...I just wished the script had given the actors more to hang their hats on. Most of it you can see coming a mile away.

Does he kill her or does he not? The Last Lullaby from first time feature film director Jeffrey Goodman holds you in suspense in the plot-driven film that has enough twists and turns to keep you on the edge of your seat. His casting is brilliant as Tom Sizemore's intensity and inner conflicts are so realistic that somehow the viewer finds himself pulling for this hit man. Sizemore's intensity contrasts perfectly with Sasha Alexander's vulnerability. His character Price has been hired to kill her, but how can you kill someone who has been a victim for so long? Goodman's treatment of the narrative by Max Alan Collins and Peter Biegen employs a brilliant combination of non-graphic violence against a pastoral, yet frequently menacing backdrop. His gorgeous panoramic shots contrasted with extreme close-ups is unusual in a film with this size budget. His deliberately slow pace enhances the suspense and is a much needed respite from the noisy,frenetic world in which most of us live. His audio is at the proper decibel level, and his choice and use of music is the best that I have witnessed in any recent film.

I predict great things for this talented director.

I drove to Dallas for the festival. Lullaby was first movie I saw. Wow! I wish all the entries were that good! It kept me in my seat from beginning to end. A movie without a potty break in the middle is an unheard of thing for me. I particularly liked the pace of the movie. It is a bit slower and more quiet that the usual Hollywood fare. Sizemore did a great job of blowing life into Price. His emotion felt real to me. An introverted, socially awkward ex-hit man requires some subtlety. Sizemore nailed it. The ending kept coming back to me for days after the movie. The movie is, as a friend of mine says about truly interesting things, "a thing that make you say, hmm".

The Last Lullabye was a very provocative and thrilling film. The actors, Tom Sizemore and Sasha Alexander, were well cast and captured the story lines in every detail. It was a fast moving plot. The cinematography was realistic without being too graphic. The young director, Jeffrey Goodman, is one to watch for future projects. Director Goodman's attention to detail and ability to translate the plot made for a very intensely interesting picture. The music chosen heightened the dramatic effect of the film capturing the intensity of the plot. The Last Lullabye should be a "must see" picture for mystery film enthusiasts.