Movie Review: Last Breath

 

Michael's Movie Grade: C+

An enjoyable but forgettable suspense film. 

At 95 minutes, this movie is simple, brief and to the point. The result is a movie that you will probably enjoy watching but will also probably forget about it in a month or so. This film tells the true-life story of a young diver, who got lost at sea and his two crewmates, who helped save him. This movie gets quite a bit of good suspense from this story and certain scenes keep you truly on the edge of your seat. The shorter run time works to the advantage of these suspense scenes. The scenes get a good amount of tension but never last too long to lose that tension. This movie also benefits from a really good cast. Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu and Finn Cole are quite charming in their roles and bring a real amount of likability to these rather cliché characters.

The main problem with this movie is that there is nothing to make it stand out from other similar suspense films. The characters are all simplistic and make us feel like we have seen them before. The basic storyline also feels familiar and the very basic approach to the storytelling only increases this feeling. The few romantic scenes between Finn Cole's character and his fiancée are filled with the type of dialogue that anyone who has ever seen a movie with any romance in it has heard a million times. None of this is really bad or poorly done, but it is simply so familiar that this movie will simply blend in with many other films in your mind. 

Director and co-writer Alex Parkinson had previously co-directed a 2019 documentary about the true-life story that this film is based on. That film shares the same name as this flick. 

While I enjoyed watching this movie, I have a hard time believing, I will remember much about it a month from now.