Review of Last Night (1998) by Arshi R — 18 Mar 2010

Grade: B+.

This is a film by Canadian Filmmaker Don McKellar. Last night is the most anomalous film you'll ever see about the end of the world. By itself it provides viewers with the antithesis of the average Hollywood studio slam-bang apocalypse film.

With 2 months of prior knowledge, the day of reckoning has finally come. When the clock strikes midnight, it will all be over. There is no more darkness, and as the day goes on, hour by hour, the night gets brighter. Something's coming closer; but that's not important, because this film isn't about solutions, its about waiting for the end, and how different people choose to face it.

The film begins at 5pm in Toronto, Canada; the last day of Earth's existence, as far as we know.

What would you do on your our last night, with that two months of prior knowledge. Would you work your way through a list of things to do before you die, spend it with family, you're husband, perhaps alone.Would you meet with the masses, go with the flow, go on a shooting rampage, get drunk, Loot some stores. Something else?

Would you deny the facts, and live as though tomorrow will come? Have and Impromptu Christmas? Reminisce?...Kill yourself?

This isn't about a group of people who get together and build a laser to eradicate an asteroid. That kind of ambition is too great and too small for my fellow Canadians. We need to salvage some dignity in the face of death, and courtesy is paramount. McKellar's film is about all those things above; what would YOU do.

Don McKeller is Patrick Wheeler, and he, and everyone else have 7 hours left. He is aiding a perfect stranger, Sandra (played by Sandra Oh) who is desperately trying to reach her husband in these last desperate hours, and is failing miserably. She has her own ideas, wildly outrageous ideas about how to spend her last night. McKeller just want's his thoughts, and apparently, what feels right is good enough for him. He is moral, and a realist, and I identify with his character alot.

His old high school pal is Craig (Callum Keith Rennie), and he's utilized the past two months with much more vigor and resolve than his old friend. The scenes involving this character had me on my ass laughing like I hardly ever do, as did much of the film. Craig is on a mission, lets just put it that way.

The film says alot about Canadians, and how we think of our identity. McKellar has a gift for dialogue which few possess. That a story this far-out feels so authentic is miraculous. The film says that when the shit hits the fan, the young are naive & fearful, the old are wise and perhaps extremely nostalgic, and religion is either a lifeboat or out the door; but its the connections we make with each other that are paramount.

Filmmaker David Cronenberg play's Duncan, the aging and dedicated manager of a gas company, and Cronenberg is wonderfully mythical in the role. It was a treat to see one of my favorite oddball directors actually in front of the camera, and he doesn't disappoint.

The story is told as a mosaic narrative somewhat akin to films like Short Cuts, in that many narratives are occurring in a single day, with an natural or ethereal event connecting all the characters in the climax.

Some things in this film will surprise, maybe even shock some people. But it never feels forced when understood in the context the film creates. I'll end this review with one of many great lines the film has to offer, this one delivered by Cronenberg:

"I'm not afraid of you. I'm not afraid of what you can do. Its you, who are afraid." The visuals that go along with that dialogue make it even better, and in the context of the story, its wicked. See this, its one of 1998's best films.