Le dernier signe

This is truly one of the worst movies I have ever seen, and I've sat through some real stinkers. "The Last Sign" features a deadly combination of wooden acting from Andie MacDowell, overacting on the son's part that soap operas would balk on, and a script that sounds as though it was written by a three-year-old. Consider this line uttered by Mark (Samuel Lebihan) at a baseball game. "Frank's team is winning. Now all the pressure is on Frank." This was followed by shouts to Frank of "Come on! You can do it!" It might look nice on paper, but it sounded so wooden and unrealistic coming out of their mouths that as soon as the movie was over, I wanted to throw the DVD across the room. Let's not forget the fact that too many unbelievable events happened for no reason, and the ending completely forgot to explain them all. Avoid this movie like the plague.

A weak and incoherent premise. Made worse by poor acting - especially from the male "love interest", who delivered his lines with such a boring, monotonic voice, it's hard to believe he cared about being alive, let alone the troubled heroine. The "special effects" were non-existent. The kids in the family were much more upset than one could believe they should be given how long their father had been dead. Finally, Andie McDowell has never been a great actress. She should have stuck with modeling. In fairness to her, the script was so bad, I don't think even Merryl Streep could pull off a convincing portrayal of this half-psychotic grieving woman. And why Tim Roth would waste his time on this project is beyond me.

I got this as a free movie from Blockbuster because I rented another first-release one. Even being free, it wasn't worth the time it took to watch it. And that's saying something for me. I usually can watch even the most tepid, unpolished Independent movie yet find something worth while in it. Not this one.

I took this movie out of the library free, so at least I didn't waste any money. The acting of all characters was unbelievable. It made me feel it was the directors' first directing job. There are a lot of loose ends that are not explained but by reading the reviews on this web site I now understand things better. Thank you IMDb. I know I did not fall asleep during the movie but that was how I felt since it seemed I missed something. It is not the worst movie I have seen but I definitely could have used the time in a more rewarding way. For some reason I missed picking up on the fact that the husband was an abusive alcoholic. Also whenever the two main characters were together I felt uncomfortable because it was embarrassing to watch such bad acting.

OK, I am a red-blooded female. Sometimes I rent a flick simply because a good-looking actor is in it. When I saw the DVD box for this one I recognized Samuel Le Bihan from "Brotherhood of the Wolf". Since I thought he was "all that and a bag of chips" in that one, I decided to check him out in this one. Also, I like Andie MacDowell well enough and I was curious to see what their fellow cast mate Margot Kidder (Lois Lane in the Christopher Reeve "Superman" flicks) looks like these days.

Undeniably there are much better flicks out there, but this one wasn't all bad. There are a few kinda creepy/mysterious scenes and some interesting camera shots and angles. And, yes, Samuel Le Bihan provided some enjoyable eye candy to offset the creepy-as-usual Tim Roth. By the way, has Roth ever played a sympathetic character? If you like the current hit TV series "Medium" starring Patricia Arquette, you will most likely enjoy this movie. It sort of reminded me of some story lines on that show.

In general, I believe film audiences are jaded in the 21st Century. We are desensitized by the plethora of special effects and blast-'em-up extravaganzas with high body counts. It seems that fewer people want to invest the time in a lower-key film, such as this one, in which seemingly random details come together in at least a somewhat cohesive whole at the end. That's not to say the film wrapped up all loose ends, because it didn't. That is one reason I didn't give it more stars. Another reason is the uneven acting. In other words, some of the cast provided more convincing portrayals than others. And, Margot Kidder is as goofy as ever. I hadn't seen her in anything in a number of years.

For my time and money, I would take this film any day over "The Blair Witch Project", which, to me, is the worst movie ever.

The acting with the exception of Andie MacDowell is awful, especially from Samuel Le Bihan (who plays the character Marc), who is so wooden its almost funny. The rest of the actors make do with a script that no one could save. No matter how good they were.

In summary, the script and plot are just plain pathetic. I would advise to give this film a miss.

Technical error: during the film, the car can not start, and you find out later it was due to a flat battery. However, the car's engine was turning over, just not firing, which if the director knew anything, is not a sign of a faulty battery.