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"'Night'
Moves"
by Scott Mantz
"Last Night"
Don McKellar, Sarah Oh
Directed by Don McKellar
I don't know
about you, but I've had it up to here with all this apocalyptic
"Y2K" hysteria. For the last few years, everybody has been running
around like a chicken without a head in anticipation of what may
or may not happen when the calendar turns over to read 1/1/00. In
Hollywood, that dark paranoia has allowed directors like David Fincher
and TV shows like "The X-Files" to cash in on a paranoid public.
With that in mind, it certainly makes sense that a movie would come
along to address the issue. It also makes sense that the resulting
film would capture the potential lunacy and dark nature of a planet
facing Doomsday in a big-budget way. "Last Night" is not that film.
Director Don McKellar has written a movie that may have a pretty
grim final destination, but shows that getting there can still be
a beautiful and wonderful journey.
There's only
6 hours left until the end of the world. Of course the streets are
packed with chaos, but that's not the focus here. Patrick (Don McKellar)
is having his last dinner with his parents before spending his final
moments alone to contemplate his life. He encounters Sandra (Sarah
Oh), who is desperately trying to get home to be with her husband.
Patrick offers to help and appeals to his friend Craig (Callum Keith
Rennie) for Sandra to "borrow" his car. Since he is busy experiencing
all the sexual fantasies he's only dreamed about (including sleeping
with his grade school teacher), he won't be needing it anytime soon.
Meanwhile, the radio DJ's are playing the greatest songs of all
time, and the Gas Company is working until the very end to ensure
uninterrupted service. Sounds like your kind of movie right?
"Last Night"
owes as much to the ensemble character-driven premise mastered by
Robert Altman as it does to the ironic mindplay of Rod Serling's
"The Twilight Zone". In a way, this is a sci-fi film without any
of the typical sci-fi elements. There's no hardware, special effects,
or terminology--just a psychological, sublime, and surreal story.
From the beginning,
you wonder just how it's all going to end. Is it a nuclear disaster?
Will the sun explode? Is an asteroid on a collision course with
the earth? (Oh, wait-- that's been done). The film counts down hour
by hour until the end. You become more tense with each passing minute
and your level of anticipation builds, but the actual intensity
of the film remains the same.
The performances
are balanced between inspiration and desperation. Even facing the
end of everything, McKellar still goes out of his way to help Oh.
He starts off as an arrogant intellectual who's resigned himself
to being alone in his final moments. You can feel his icy solitude
melt away as he opens up his heart to Oh, who embodies his last
real chance to feel love. Their connection is beautiful, heartfelt,
and sensitive. Rennie ends up doing something most moviegoers would
want to do themselves. Realizing there's no point anymore, he's
made a wish list of all the sexual adventures he's never had and
proceeds to check them off one-by-one.
When "Last Night"
is finally over, you can't help but wonder how you would react in
the same situation. How would you live out your life knowing it
would all be over tomorrow? Would you tell the object of your affection
how you really feel? Would you travel to an exotic location? Would
you quit your job? Of course you would! Instead of asking how you
would spend your final moments, maybe McKellar is asking why you're
not spending all your moments that way right now.
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