Search - Last Chance on DVD

Threading fate

Luca Graziuso | NYC | 08/21/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"At the dilapidated Last Chance cafe in the California desert, a woman living without a dream (Robin Dearden) meets a man who lives by his (Tim Thomerson). They could destroy what was and discover what could be, depending on the choices they make when faced with their Last Chance. A steady flow of the common tragedies of human affairs are evoked with a poignant if delicate arpeggio that threads on a lyre the strings of fate as the circumstances of time strum the chords in accordance with the necessity of responsibility and opportunities. There is a harping feel that dwells in the script, and the cinematography is affected by an Edward Hopperesque indolence and solitude that pervades the narrative and becomes much of the characterization as they struggle, redefine and contribute to a stalemate that has been transcending their lives.
This is undoubtedly a slow paced movie, one that does not pack a strong aray of dramatic punches but manages to knock you out by its dolorous melancholy and trancelike stolidity. I would venture to make the claim that many may find the narative boring and ordinary, but therein lies its strength. Not a fun watch and not an entertaining one. It demands of us to listen and give it its due time, because it fails to captivate and it is not intended to inspire a a rush, rather it seeks to display the slow conspiracy of time as it accelerates daily paast our venues. As John Lennon once said "life is what happens while you are busy making plans." In this narrative we see this maxim take hold and center stage while everything seems to be marginal and peripheral, never central to a narrative that is concentrated but out of focus. The director and script writer, Bryan Cranston, had written this story as a love letter for his wife (Robin Dearden) who is also playing the lead female role. The acting is fabulous and the performances are diffused with coplementary portraits that absorb the narrative unto an inner indeterminacy that awaits trial. Everything happens without much of a reason and the emtional tide is slow in rising but steady in its presence.
It is not one of those movies that lead you to take on those dreams you've somehow become disaffected from, rather it seeks to give a meditative prescience to the core of your values and goals, to the identity that in spite of yourself you've come to inherit.
The imagery incorporates a sterility which the movie cannot shake off and it seeks to run the choices we make as by a needle that threads through the texture of society without a clear understanding of what it shall give shape to.
The anamorphic bafflement of it all comes to a climax that seems too optimistic if contrasted with a story-line that sees as the ultimate disposition the symptoms that leave us alone in a world where we seek to share our solitude to give us a better chance at finding the strength to design our lives in ways that negotiate the final purchase by twists of fate and a destiny that guides moreso than it invites. However it remains a poweful picture that bids us to determine the timescape without having it corrupt our sense of direction.
Not recommended for an audience that seeks definitive answers or a fresh interpretation of the compromising hols life takes as it builds and destoys without much ado.
An intelligent feature with a dialogue that waxes poetic in places in which it ought to deliberate by a more simple scansion. The movie offers the occasional frisson but by and large stays true to a slow passing we ust contend with in the rush of it all."