Il suo ultimo desiderio

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.

Im usually not a look at my phone while watching a movie kind of person but from the beginning of there movie I found myself looking at my phone. Buy the time out was over I thought that maybe I missed a few key parts because I had no idea what the movie was all about. Came to see what others thought and I see that I didn't miss anything because others were just as confused as I was. This movie feels like they forgot to shoot some scenes that told more of the story. Maybe there's more answers in the book This was based off of.

I just have no idea what the story is about. I don't even understand what the leading characters are doing, or indeed who they really are! The events are confusing, and the characters are poorly developed.

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!

These days I get more and more the impression that the producers don't read scripts anymore - who the hell gave this script a green light? And why!? The story is not very interesting and the execution just adds up to an impression of a redundant and boring movie. Also what's up with those fine actors!? How William Defoe could get involved in this movie!? If he didn't read the script he should fire his agent. Anyway, to be more precise, i renamed the title of the movie to The Last Thing I Wanted, and put it on my personal blacklist that's called "never watch or touch it again". But for certain from a certain perspective it is an achievement to make such a bad movie with that kind of skilled cast... Verdict: one of those fast produced movies that are made these days to fill the airtime of some paychannel. My guess: The Last Thing He Wanted will be faster forgotten than produced.