LAST BREATH
Starring: Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu, Finn Cole, Cliff Curtis, Mark Bonnar, MyAnna Buring, Bobby Rainsbury, and Josef Altin
Director: Alex Parkinson
NICK
Director Alex Parkinson's decision to recreate the subject matter of his 2019 documentary as a dramatic feature is a bit of a mixed bag. The highlights are the stranger-than-fiction story that the narrative follows and the authentic performances of the cast. When the film creates tension, it's at a peak. Unfortunately, in staying true to the real life story, there are some lulls that stall any momentum being built, and the nature of the film doesn't allow for engaging performances to fill up those spaces. All in all, this is a fine film that does nothing to add to the doc.
QUENTIN
While the true story of Last Breath is an incredible one, it’s too thin to sustain a feature length movie considering the real-life incident only lasted about 30 minutes. At no point was I invested in any of the characters, outside of the general sympathy I’d feel for any random person trapped on the ocean floor without oxygen, and there isn’t much to the efforts to save the stranded diver, resulting in absolutely zero tension. As such, the cast isn’t given much to do, including a completely wasted Woody Harrelson and another step towards irrelevance for Simu Liu. This one should be left in the abyss.
AMARÚ
For a 93-minute movie, much of Last Breath tends to drag. I can appreciate the attention to detail director Alex Parkinson pays to the mechanics of diving, especially because this is a true story, but the careful time spent setting up the dive makes the film plod at a snail’s pace. What helps are the emotional performances from much of the cast, with Mark Bonnar being a standout and Woody Harrelson trying to “Woody” the hell out of any scene he can, but the short runtime mixed with its real-life pacing has every exciting moment slip away just as fleetingly as it came.
KATIE
The concept of Last Breath terrifies me to my core, so I was primed and ready for a tense and engaging film. It's at its best during the nail-biting underwater scenes, but when above water, the pacing drags, especially considering its short runtime. I know Simu Liu’s character is meant to be standoffish, but he comes across as stiff; Woody Harrelson is charming as always, but his performance is nothing special. Most disappointingly, the miraculous fate of one of the divers is so understated that they somehow make it seem unremarkable, and the tedious latter half of the film truly lost me.
ADRIANO
To my surprise, Last Breath is solid enough. I fell for its crowd-pleaser aspects as the situation, while not perfect, is easy enough to root for, although my favourite parts are when the characters are bouncing off each other before the incident. As I've said before, for all the complaints about movies being too long, there is such a thing as a movie being too short. As is, I didn't have enough time to be fully scared for this guy before they got to the inevitable rescue. But, hey. I was entertained, so I can't fully complain.
PAIGE
Last Breath may be a claustrophobic watch, but it oddly lacks tension as the stakes never feel as prevalent as the film intends them to be. The underwater scenes are fascinating to witness, but everything above the surface is hardly serviceable to this true story. Not to mention the dialogue sucks the air out of the room with how thin it is. All in all, this movie is as generic as they come, though perhaps I would have appreciated the story more if I had seen the documentary on which the film is based.
ROBERT
Nothing scares me more than feeling claustrophobic underwater, so Last Breath upped my anxiety levels to near-maximum. With no concept of the documentary, I felt the closing weight of the ocean and the uncertainty of being swept away by an unrelenting force. It did feel short, but simultaneously felt as if the filmmakers meant to end it sooner than it actually did, as I was expecting an addendum to the rescue that never came. However, that didn’t detract from the roll-out of the story overall. The lived-in character bonds made me care for the emotional relationships; but mostly, this film showed that the ocean should remain mostly unexplored.
BRYAN
Even for someone who’s terrified of films primarily set underwater, Last Breath doesn’t fully live up to its tense potential. While there are quite a few flaws, there is also quite a bit to praise. For one, the underwater sequences are nail-biting, and the performances from the cast are serviceable. Yet, the screenplay doesn’t do the film any favors, being a mostly surface-level (pun intended) plot. It was 90 minutes that I don’t entirely regret spending on a jarring attempt to transition a documentary into a narrative, and while it isn’t a disaster, it could have been so much more.
