Sa dernière volonté

I always check the rates on IMDB before watching a movie in streaming. However this time I followed my wife's decision because she said it was "my kind of movie": political drama/thriller. Big mistake. Terrible script, robotic performances from Hathaway and Afleck. Willem Dafoe was a wasted talent on this one. Do not bother.

I just created an account specifically for this review. That's how bad, pointless, and confusing this movie was. I felt something in my soul that said I had to let the world know.

Plot: Bad/Pointless Continuity: None Doesn't tie everything in at any point Feeling: Am I dumb, did I miss something, or is this movie actually this bad?

This film has prompted several questions Who OK'd this film to be released? Will I ever forgive myself for wasting 2 hours of my life?

While the answer to the first question is obviously "an idiot", the answer to the second question is actually "yes!".

There's a silver lining. In wasting my time watching this film, I managed to come across film reviews and ratings of this movie afterwards. I got so much joy and laughter (which I did not receive from watching the movie) out of reading how bad the movie was that I actually am happy I watched it. For every second of misery I endured watching the movie, there was a moment of happiness reading a review of an equally disgusted viewer. The ONLY reason to watch the movie is to laugh at the reviews after!

My god was this horrible. The plot never materialized and, while the cast of all stars was great to see, it lack direction. Something I never thought I would see with the talent and director.

Most movies have some underlying moral or idea that they are trying to get across but even that was missing (which is something I rather like but in this instance I thought that maybe it would be what made the whole thing come together.)

Bottom line, just don't waste your time. If you do you only have yourself to blame... You've been warned

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.

'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.