These Final Hours

Great, absorbing, understated apocalypse drama.

Reasonably original plot. Set in Perth, Australia, the world will end in less than 12 hours. A man (played by Nathan Phillips) heads out to an End of the World party. On the way he saves a little girl (played by Angourie Rice) from the clutches of some kidnappers. Now his priorities and degrees of compassion are tested...

It's certainly not your average apocalypse drama. Focuses mainly on relationships and what matters most, rather than the usual survival- type stuff. Quite emotional at times.

Well-directed too. Small budgets tend to bring out the best in directors, as they have to rely on good old-fashioned camera angles and the like, and the audience's imaginations, rather than special effects. This movie is no exception: director (and writer) Zak Hilditch uses the camera well, and relies on the audience to fill in some of the details.

Fairly unknown cast put in solid performances. The standout is probably Angourie Rice as the little girl. Very convincing, especially for someone her age.

Production is a bit rough around the edges, but in some ways that helps, as it makes it feel more real.

Great film - tense, edgy, but human. Nathan Phillips and Angourie Rice are excellent - especially Angourie Rice - extraordinary acting for an 11 year old! The other two stand-outs are Sarah Snook, and the cameo by Lynnette Curran. In fact, the female casting is what makes the film so memorable - in other hands an end-of-days scenario like this could have been a parade of clichés for the young adult male market, but director Zac Hilditch draws us into a story that is bleak, yet sensitive and gripping without being addled by senseless action and effects. The cinematography and editing are also responsible for the film's great presence - beautifully shot by Bonnie Elliott and edited by Nick Meyers.

There are some special qualities in this end-of-the-world enactment. The main plus is that this is a large scale fable of the last days on earth that moves well. It never gets stuck on one theme, except the disruption of the leading character's relationships, which also signals the end of what is known about 'personal' life under would-be normal circumstances. There really is a fully owned dramatization of the total dislocation of normal society - & this is possibly among the best of such dramatizations. There is a faithfulness to the screenwriter's vision that's pretty awesome. Also awesome is some really good acting from the leading man, who gets convincingly tearful at the prospect of being parted from a 7-year old girl who'd become his charge through the course of the story's development. The imminent end of things near and dear is very well brought across, with hardly any mucking about in minor sub-plots.

Not knowing anything about it, I decided to check "These final hours", and I am glad I did.

It's a rather powerful drama about the end of the world. Meteorite had hit North America and firestorm is spreading from there, destroying most of the world. Australia only has few hours left before firestorm finally hits it's territory, destroying entire world completely.

Movie fallows James, a man with troubled past, man filled with loneliness and emptiness in his life. He is accompanied with little girl looking for her dad. What fallows is series of event that eventually lead James on the path of his own redemption and realization of what wrongs he did in his life, but, as time is running out, he races with time (or firestorm) to right the wrongs of his life, or at least some of them.

There could be some theories why he picks up little girl, but it's most likely that his "fatherhood" instinct kicks in after saving little girl Rose, since at the beginning of the movie we find out that his girlfriend is pregnant, and since world will end in just a few hours, Rose ends up being his surrogate daughter.

It should be noted that while movie deals with apocalyptic theme, it also gives a fair amount of hope for viewers as well as it's characters, via character (or rather voice) of radio host who informs people when firestorm is going to hit. It's a nice element, since radio host is basically a narrator of the movie.

Music is terrific and rather beautiful, especially at the end. Great acting from Nathan Phillips, Jessica de Gouw and Angourie Rice.

Australia is pretty good at delivering end-of-the-world movies, and whilst These final hours may not be the best of them, it definitely makes it into the top league of the genre. Some elements, like the doomsday background episodes, or the radio commentary are pretty cliché, but the two leads are very good, and their interaction makes for a very watchable movie. In fact, the "Watch me until you can't see me" scene towards the end is the most moving one I have seen in this genre, and it is well worth watching this film for that scene alone.