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All-Reviews.com Movie/Video Review
Last Orders
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  out of 4
Review by Harvey Karten
No Rating Supplied
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What do people talk about during funerals? If they're lucky
they've listened to inspiring speakers address the life of the
deceased and comment later on the proceedings. Conversations
at these morbid affairs range from the expected crying with
expression of sympathy for those closest to the deceased to
predictions on the stock market and on the horses. If the
departed has been cremated without much of a service and close
friends and family take the ashes to be scattered, they talk about
the poor man or woman while driving to the place of dispersal,
usually the ocean. This is just what "Last Orders," written and
directed by Fred Schepisi from the Booker Prize-winning novel of
the same name by Graham Swift, is about. Though much of the
talky story looks as though it could find a place on one of the
high-minded stages of a New York theater like the Promenade on
the Upper West Side, Schepisi lends an appropriately cinematic
feel by repeated flashbacks, showing the small burial party and
what's left of their buddy selected scenes from their former days.
By the time the movie concludes, we know pretty much what has
made these people the way they are today. The film, however, is
for a specialized audience, one willing to patiently have Schepisi
peel the literary onion so that each disclosure brings us closer to
the way the past has affected the characters at present. To
make a global analogy, we can understand the makeup of
today's world by exploring its history.
The catalytic event that spurs the story is the death of Jack
Dodd (Michael Caine), a butcher leading a modest life in London,
a working class stiff with a bunch of working-class, ale-drinking
friends who proves to be not just another anonymous face in the
crowd once we get to know him. As his best friend Ray (Bob
Hoskins), another pal Vic (Tom Courtenay) who doubles as an
undertaker, yet another companion Lenny (David Hemmings)
and his son Vince (Ray Winstone) gather in the corner ale-
house, they prepare to take a drive to Margate to hurl the ashes
into the sea. As they talk about Jack, they unfold key
experiences in his past and we get to see young Jack in the war
(played by a startling young-Michael-Caine-lookalike, JJ Feild).
One such turning point involves how Ray saves Jack's life during
the war by dragging him back to the trenches just as the bullets
were flying. Yet another is a sexual interlude that young Jack
has with his wife Amy (Helen Mirren), resulting in the birth of a
mentally handicapped daughter, June (Laura Morelli)--who is
placed in a home and never accepted by Jack. Yet another
involves a liaison that Ray has with Amy as he drives her to the
institution to visit June--taking the place of Jack who refuses to
visit the poor retarded woman.
This is a small film which at times comes close to out-talking
the French cinema (Rohmer and his ilk) and in which the director
seems to have the highest respect for the willingness of the
audience to bear with him as he takes his time even getting the
tale started. Schepisi may intend to get even the males in the
audience to pull out their hankies but the fogeys in this drama are
not exceptionally likeable and the entire film, which occasionally
punctuated by quiet humor, is sadly lacking in wit and an
appropriate dollop of plain old melodrama. The National Board of
Review conferred its reward on "Last Orders" for Best Ensemble
Acting.
Copyright © 2001 Harvey Karten
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