| Reviewer Roundup |
| 1. |
 | Steve Rhodes |
| review follows |
|   |
| 2. |
| Harvey Karten |
| read the review |
| --- |
|
Review by Steve Rhodes
3½ stars out of 4
Fred Schepisi's delightfully sweet and dryly funny LAST ORDERS features a
cornucopia of great, older English actors, including Michael Caine, Tom
Courtenay, David Hemmings, Bob Hoskins, Helen Mirren and Ray Winstone. Just
watching them work is well worth the price of admission, but the script, based
on Graham Swift's novel, is a real treat as well. For almost two mesmerizing
hours, we get to know the characters' lives, loves and friends as they reminisce
aloud and as younger actors play them in flashbacks. We come to love each and
everyone of them so much that the arrival of the ending credits is the film's
only disappointment.
The purposely ambiguous title refers both to the last orders of the deceased
named Jack (Caine) and to the calling for the last round of drinks at the pub
where the guys hang out. The story, which fluidly and clearly moves back and
forth in time, begins just after Jack, a second-generation butcher, has been
cremated. The guys are gathering at the pub with "Jack in a box," as his friend
Lenny (Hemmings) refers to the ashes. The mission that day is to make an ashes
scattering pilgrimage to Margate, a seaside resort town where Jack and Amy
(Mirren) had their honeymoon. Jack's son, Vince (Ray Winstone), a car salesman,
drives them. Also along for the ride is Jack's friend Vic (Tom Courtenay), an
undertaker who delivers the funniest line. "My old dad," Vic tells them, "used
to say, 'You don't dilly-dally with the deceased.'" Their dalliance en route to
Margate, however, is precisely what makes the movie so captivating. Along the
way, many memories are shared as well as a few secrets. All are touching.
LAST ORDERS runs 1:39. It is rated R for "sexuality and some language" and
would be acceptable for teenagers.
Copyright © 2002 Steve Rhodes
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out of 4
