Mr. Morgan's Last Love

Last Love (2013)

This is such a poignant and well meant movie it's hard to not like it and its intentions. What it fails to do is "rise above." It is a heartfelt look at finding meaning at the end—and the beginning—of life in Paris, and yet it remains somewhat prosaic, missing a beat now and then. I loved it at times, but only very much liked it by the end.

I love without reservation "Mostly Martha," the most successful movie by the director, Sandra Nettlebeck. In that one, she makes her understanding of being German, and its limitations, an important part of the movie. Here we are in France, in a plot based on a French novel, with a British actor playing an American and a young French woman. Michael Caine is nor ordinary actor and he's actually wonderful here. And indeed the young woman who plays his muse, in a way (the woman who creates the "crack" in his world that is the key to the movie), is also very good, if common (played by Clemence Poesy—she appears in a couple Harry Potter movies).

What succeeds beyond these very good performances is the idea of a man near his last days in Paris, after the death of his wife, and a young woman who befriends him out of some unexplained loneliness. What they form is an odd but believable friendship. Their family and other friends do not understand or approve, but it makes sense to them, even when it's awkward. It's a kind of brave and interesting subject.

What it lacks is exactly the right feel and touch, the sense of trueness to spirit and character that people might actually have. There are moments that are just great, a rebellion or a quiet look, and then there are moments where the characters act, well, out of character. A hair.

If this seems like picking on nuances you have to understand that the movie is about such emotional and psychological nuances. It sets its own bar high, and so suffers from that. Sometimes.

See it? Yes. I liked it wholly. But see also "Mostly Martha" for a similar sense of finding what matters, of pan-European feelings, of crossing normal boundaries with romantic flair.

it's an unpretentious fine film, which can be seen with pleasure.

Interpreters are beautiful and the dialogues are very pleasant.

As it is usual, authors have some difficult in finding an end for the movie, being possible a few of them. Probably due to this, the last half hour is a bit inconsistent: Pauline redirects her love from father to son a bit too quickly.

Also illogical is that people go from Paris to St. Malo and vice versa as if it was the next town in the map, or as if they had taken helicopters instead of driving or taking a taxi.

Michael Caine exhibits his 80 years splendidly. I am astonished seeing that he will act at least in three films this year.

I felt compelled to write something about this title. I was initially confused by Mr Morgan's accent, which is probably the only reason this is a 9 and not a 10. This film is beautiful in every way, the story, the characters and the setting. The subject matter is quite sad, but I still felt a warm glow in my heart at the end. The French setting also adds to the sophisticated feel of this movie, giving a perfect backdrop to a complicated and endearing love story. This film is a cuddle up with a "loved one" classic. The pace is good too, slowly meandering through Mr Morgan's life after he lost his wife; subtly showing his struggle as he closes himself off from the world. You feel there is little hope until, a young dancer, opens up a crack and lets light back into his life. Anyone who likes a less conventional love story will adore this film.

After Sandra Nettelbecks movie Mostly Martha I had high hopes for this one and was not disappointed. In contrast to Mostly Martha, the film is more Drama than Comedy. This movie is about a dysfunctional family with a father/grandfather being estranged from his children. This is something almost every family can relate to. The movie develops slowly, revealing the family secrets one by one. At the end we will feel sympathy with every member of the family because we understand their positions but we are far from knowing how to solve their problems. The solution or kind of a solution that will leave most of us happy is also revealed slowly. This is a slow movie with very good acting. Michael Caine is excellent. The only thing that bothered me a little was the music.

What starts as a very intelligent, well-acted movie about the nature of relationships and the need for connection, turns dramatically and disappointingly into a sentimental mushpile of a soap opera, and then gets worse. Extremely well-acted up to a point, the characters are fleshed out as real people and you can for the most part understand and empathize with them. Michael Caine's weird attempt at an American accent doesn't quite undermine his characterization of the professor, but it is distracting and sounds too false. He did a pretty OK American accent in Cider House Rules, but nowhere else.

I was very impressed by most of this movie, including the pretty scenery, and the nicely conceived and rounded characters. About 2/3 of the way through however, it goes off the rails. Another reviewer described this movie as having sincerity, and I would agree with that up to a point. There are few false notes in the script, but when they happen they are real clunkers that drag the movie down like an anchor. This may be because the rest of the movie is so sincere and real that the false notes feel just that more false, but I don't think that's quite it.

There is a very soap opera moment at around the 3/4 point which not only feels contrived, but which pulls the story in a really unsatisfying direction. While it's headed in this disastrous direction it's actually succeeding in giving the characters life in a meaningful and sincere way, but then another ridiculous plot device drives it further into the ground. And then another. And another.

And the ending is just stupid. Unwatchably preposterously stupid. Given what we know these characters have gone through, and how much they've grown as human beings, it's outside the realm of believability and is antithetical to the story, erasing the purpose of the movie and voiding its intelligence with a single swipe. Worse, the movie wants you to view the ending as having the sort of lofty nobility that would cause you to leap out of your seat and applaud, which I find personally disgusting. Would that I had leaped out of my seat earlier and left. If that particular ending was in the original source material, then so much the worse for the source material because as portrayed it didn't do the movie any favors.