Two Words, One Answer.
last night
 Last Night $15.95 I've literally purchased 200+ children's books for my 2.5 year old - this is hands down her favorite  Last Night $14.98 I saw this when it originally came out; I think actually it was at a film festival. I was thinking that it was originally commissioned as part of a project called "2000 Seen By..." in which a whole bunch of directors around the world made films about the end of the millenium, but I don't see any info on that. I think it must have premiered in Chicago at the same time as some of that series which I saw, thus the confusion in my mind after 11 years. At any rate, it has a "millenial" feel even if the exact date isn't mentioned, and I liked it then and even more on this viewing. It's not just the end of the world as we know it, it's the end of the world period, but we (mostly) still feel fine. Or at least...resigned and OK about it. Director-writer Don McKellar plays Patrick Wheeler, a successful architect who lives alone in a high-rise in Toronto, and at the beginning of the film he's going to a "Christmas" dinner with his family, who he's been somewhat estranged from it seems; after that he plans to return home to await the end, which will occur at midnight. As I said, the date isn't given, but it might be around Christmas-time, though it's warm and the sun is bright in the sky throughout the night. Presumably the sun is about to go supernova and burn the planet up - certainly the only logical explanation for a warm, bright and green Toronto in the winter! Patrick soon runs across Sandra (Sandra Oh), trying to get back to her husband to be with him at the end. Her car has been wrecked by vandals and she lives on the other side of town; public transportation and cabs are nonexistant at this point. Patrick doesn't really want to help her at first, quite selfishly (but understandably if you think about it) wanting his end to be what he had designed - but through events and his own deeper selflessness he becomes involved in trying to help her through most of the rest of the film. We also drop in on Craig (Callum Keith Rennie) who is trying to satisfy as many sexual fantasies as he can before the end; Duncan (David Cronenberg), a gas company manager who is personally calling all of his customers to with them farewell; a mother and daughter (Arsine Khanjian and Chandra Muszka) sitting desolately on an abandoned streetcar, and a few other disparate characters, most of whom in the end wind up having connections to each other that weren't at first apparent. Canadian cinema fans will no doubt recognize a lot of people involved in the film - with the Cronenberg connection and Khanjian (Atom Egoyan's wife and principle collaborator), Oh and Sarah Polley (as Patrick's sister) among others it has the feeling of a "Canada's greatest hits" cast, but I think that's entirely appropriate - the film as a whole takes a very different approach to the looming catastrophe than something like ARMAGEDDON, released the same year. I don't know how conscious McKellar was of this, but the film strikes me in some ways as a rebuke to the notion that we have to approach the end - of life or of the world - with anger, violence, madness - or with the notion that we can save ourselves no matter what the scientists tell us. Although plenty of fear and negative emotions and violence exist in the film, we're also constantly reminded that many Torontians are approaching the end with grace and dignity, and somehow in this film that actually seems logical and realistic. I could be reading too much into it I suppose, but through the various coincidences and the spectacularly wonderful - yet wholly predictable, if you really divine what the film is reaching for - ending, we see people searching for, and often finding, hope and forgiveness and love in the face of the end. Certainly a very different sort of "armageddon" than the ones we typically see in the multiplexes. The film wouldn't have worked at all if not for the two leads; at first I wasn't crazy about Patrick, who seems a little too snobbish and bitchy to be quite believable at the end of the world - but eventually both through the revelation of his past and McKellar's general underplaying he becomes more compelling. Oh is terrific, and for once her long, sad face is utterly appropriate; in the finale she is absolutely radiant when at last she finds the strength to smile and to feel something other than loss, if only for the last second. Although some of the secondary characters seem like they could have/should have been fleshed out a bit more to me (Sarah Polley's in particular) and there's a bit of a rushed quality, overall this is a beautiful and sensitive and warmly humanistic film, a low-key corrective to the notion that we have to approach "the end" kicking and screaming, something that's all too rare in the context of it's subject matter - and in general. Nice soundtrack choices as well.  About Last Night... $9.95 I purchased this to demonstrate certain concepts to my clients. I am a family counselor. The concepts were demonstrated in a light hearted manner but clearly got the idea across. It served my purpose well. The movie is also highly entertaining. However, I did not expect the profanity and sex scenes. Do not have children in the room when you view this movie! It also embarrased me slightly with my clients who had previouslyn viewed me as primarily conservative. |
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