Review: The Last Thing He Wanted

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But is it the last thing SHE wanted?

Elena McMahon (Anne Hathaway) is a reporter who used to spend most of her time in Central America cracking stories with her fellow journalist, Alma Guerrero (Rosie Perez) but now her desk has been frozen and she's regulated to the campaign trail for Ronald Regan's second run as president. Her sketchy father (Willem DaFoe) falls ill and begs her to complete a job for him. Bored with the assignment she's been given, she helps her father as it puts her right back into the place that she wanted to be. 

Or something.

Honestly, I need someone to explain this movie to me like I'm five because I had a hard time following it. I'm not quite sure why either, this movie should've been very straightforward. But with every new bit of information, I kept questioning how Elena got to where she was or why she was doing it in the first place. Which is funny, because she asks herself these very same questions in the opening voice over. There are several times she has these epiphanies, and you can tell by the score that you too are supposed to be having an "aha" moment along with her, but at that point I had been given so much new information that I completely forgot what she was doing 15 minutes ago.

This bums me out to write because I love director Dee Rees. I've never disliked a film of hers and even though this is getting terrible reviews, I wanted to watch it and I hoped I would come out on the other side but that wasn't the case. The constant info dumps, the choppy editing. There's a scene with Ben Affleck's character where the camera cuts to so many different angles within the span of about 1 minute that I almost wonder if it's an allegory to the film as a whole. It's just a mess.


The actors are good. Anne Hathaway carries the film well. I wish Rosie Perez was in it more. Ben Affleck's character perplexes me but I suppose he was solid as the man he played. I liked the sets and how it really looked and felt like it was in the 80's. I hope this isn't a road bump on Ree's career, and that she moves on to the next best thing. We all stumble sometimes.

Recommended: No

Grade: C-

Memorable Quote: "We were young. I was young." - Elena McMahon (Anne Hathaway)

Comments

  1. thevoid99March 7, 2020 at 8:24 PM

    Yeah, I heard this was a huge disappointment considering the wealth of talent in that film. With the exception of Mudbound (which I haven't seen), I really like what I've seen so far from Dee Rees but I don't know if I want to see this unless I'm doing an Auteurs piece on her soon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamMarch 9, 2020 at 12:26 AM

      Mudbound is wonderful you should see it if you get the chance. It's far better than this.

      Delete
  2. GetterMarch 8, 2020 at 9:04 AM

    I feel like Anne Hathaway has been in some bad movies lately. Going to avoid this one as well. :D

    ReplyDelete
  3. Carson Maitland - SmithMarch 9, 2020 at 4:44 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Carson Maitland - SmithMarch 9, 2020 at 4:45 AM

    Scoob's 2 months away

    ReplyDelete
  5. Often Off TopicMarch 9, 2020 at 6:27 AM

    Ugh, I can't bring myself to watch this one. There are a lot of movies I struggle to follow so I just know I'll get completely lost!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamMarch 9, 2020 at 3:18 PM

      I need to find a spark notes version of this plot lol

      Delete
  6. keith71_98March 10, 2020 at 1:16 PM

    Yep...it's a rough go. And it's such a shame. It has plenty of ingredients for a good political thriller. But it is soooo messy and hard (for me) to comprehend. UGH!

    ReplyDelete

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