Sa dernière volonté

'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.

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.

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.

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.

Nope, the 5th grader's screenplay would be better!

"The Last Thing Anyone Wanted" should've been the title of this film. What was seasoned writer and director Dee Rees on when she wrote and directed this, and did no one else proofread this convoluted plot ridden excuse for a screenplay?

Ugggh, 2 hours of my life I'll never get back! Watch the trailer and you've seen the entire movie - and the trailer makes more sense than the movie if that tells you anything. What a waste of talented actors. A shame this will be a thorn on their resume, I hope they got paid well. NOTHING in this film made any sense. The only thing I got out of this film was to take up smoking; Hathaway was successful in advertising cigarette smoking.

The only reason I'm not giving this film a 1/10 is +1 for the actors and +1 for the producers not posting fake/paid reviews - yet. Thus it's a 3/10 from me