Last Love

source: Last Love

This film tells the story of a young Parisian woman who befriends an old American man. The plot is a little weird to start with, as Pauline actively befriends Matthew. Though there's no romantic element involved, it still feels strange for a friendship to blossom. Then the plot doesn't make sense, especially after the son arrives, and then constant bickering. Then all of a sudden Matthew gives Pauline the big gift, which is very strange. Then Pauline and the son develop a relationship? That's just bizarre. I know the plot is about healing and forgiveness, but it's just too weird.

When I saw the summary of this film on my Acorn TV home page, I thought it would be something charming like Something's Gotta Give, presenting a heartwarming story of the possibility of love later in life. Instead it's the story of an older man who obviously isn't interested in his lovely friend his own age, who is trying to beguile a beautiful, much younger woman who would obviously have no problems finding someone closer to her own age. Didn't have any interest in seeing if he was successful Unrealistic and demeaning to women in my opinion. I stopped watching as soon as the plot became clear that his "love interest" was someone who in real life would have seen him as a grandfather figure.

It starts... wonderfully - Michael Caine with his usual magnetic pull,the female lead looking perfect for her character. It all seems to be heading in the right direction until... they talk. Michael Caine's character should have been simply - a British character. His accent is far to thick and too distinctive to be covered-over by any other accent. Throughout the film Michael isn't sure if he is an American or a Brit and and one point goes to Texas and back. The man is a legend, surely when filming him at the time, the director and screenplay writer (same person) should have been frowning at herself for making this icon of the screen take us on a world tour of English, ruining his amazing facial and body movements. A quick rewrite as a Brit, the character would have been perfect. Now... as for the female lead. Where to begin? Her accent is even more country-less. Is she French, English, American or even oddly Scots/Irish? I could hear all of these accents at some point in the film. Again, is the director deaf or just reading her script without actually hearing it? To set a film in such a prominent location as Paris, characters need to be absolutely established as to who they are and where they come from. The main female character is apparently French but she speaks 80% of the time with a British accent. You could argue the character **spoiler** has a father that was British and maybe she had grown up there? No... Michael Caine's character often corrects her English - so we have a girl with an English accent that can't actually speak basic English?? It turned me off. I am a voice artist/impressionist, anyone like me that is annoyed by bad accents, avoid this film. ;-) On to the overall plot: It gets messy. Other characters simply get in the way of the main purpose of the story. Gillian Anderson appears like she's in a flash-back to the X-Files... Serving no purpose in the room or as a character, talking, blah blah then a few serious looks is gone as soon as she arrived. Generally, Michael Caine was too big for this film to handle. As another reviewer says: "Soap Opera" - I wholeheartedly agree. This could have been far, far better. The ending is irritating and does not conclude the characters in a satisfactory way at all. Disappointed.

Review: This is a sweat movie about a elderly man who can't find the will to live after the death of his wife. After deciding to live in Paris, he befriends a young French girl who brings a little joy to his life but he can't fight the depression from loosing his wife. Although I found the storyline touching, I did get bored after a while because the pace of the movie is really slow and it's nearly 2 hours long. You do get to see Michael Caine in a different light and he does bring a lot of emotion to his role, but I found myself waiting for something to happen. The chemistry between Caine and Poesy was quite good, but the director didn't have to make it so long. In all, I did find the film to be a little depressing, but the acting is great and it was funny to see Caine trying to dance. Average! Round-Up: Michael Caine seems to be taking a lot of independent roles lately, which isn't surprising after starring in big blockbusters like the Batman movies, Now You See Me and putting his voice to the Cars 2. He always pulls out great performances, no matter what the budget is, which is why he will always be classed as one of the best in his field. Clemence Poesy has also starred in some big movies which range from the Harry Potter franchise to 127 Hours and In Bruges so she isn't a newcomer. I liked her sweat and innocent approach to her role which really worked in this movie, especially alongside Caine's character. Anyway, the movie does drag after a while but the subject matter is touching. Budget: N/A Worldwide Gross: $2million I recommend this movie to people who are into there touching dramas about a elderly man fighting depression after he looses his wife to cancer. 4/10

Sandra Nettelbeck's zombified film, based upon the French novel La Douceur Assassine, ostensibly opens where Michael Haneke's Amour ended. But while Haneke's film sought to challenge our principles and provoke topical debate, Nettelbeck's is more likely to challenge the patience and provoke irritation in all but the most undemanding. The dialogue is trite, the relational dynamics are soapy, and the tone is sentimental. Matthew Morgan (Michael Caine) has just put his wife (Jane Alexander) to eternal sleep. He's condemned to shuffling around his plush Parisian apartment, now an echoing mausoleum, until such a time that he plucks up the courage to meet his wife in the thereafter. But his dwindling existence is suddenly electrified when he's hit upon (or, contrives to be hit upon) by a young dance instructor named Pauline (Clémence Poésy). Her father is dead. "You remind me of my father," she tells Matthew. This gives you an idea of the sort of script we're dealing with. The essential premise, which wavers between faintly creepy and screw-faced baffling, wouldn't be such a problem if there were deeper layers of drama underneath. But it's all surface. Potentially difficult issues – e.g. assisted suicide – are brushed against gently, while others are glossed over entirely – e.g. the dubious sexual energy between lonely old Matthew and daddy's little princess Pauline. And this is before Matthew's vile children (Justin Kirk and Gillian Anderson) turn up to do some shopping and tell their dad he's selfish. It's a film world where characters are seemingly more interested in soap operatics than behaving like recognisable human beings; and where men and women relate like alien species. Michael Caine is suitably bumbling and shell-shocked in the title role, even though, playing an American, he adopts a bizarre accent that prances across most of the Western hemisphere, often in the course of a single line. Poésy is adorable; except, beyond the basic knowledge of her own bereavement, we never truly understand what draws her so powerfully to Matthew, let alone why she sidles up to his hospital bed in a see-through top. Anderson provides a brief burst of energy, but it's a cameo really. The heavy lifting is left to Kirk, and it's a charmless delivery of a charmless character. "It wasn't supposed to be like this!" cries Matthew. Another clunker of a line from a screenplay blandified to oblivion. No alarms and no surprises; the surreal, vanishing point horror that is spousal grief is rendered as hazy anaesthesia, where the senses are dulled until some younger model comes along to reawaken them. The sequences where Matthew relives conversations with his wife are presumably meant to represent reflective recollection, but I couldn't help wondering if they might be born of guilt for burying his face in Pauline's * while he wept for his loss. The cinematography is a watercolour array of picture postcards depicting landmark Paris and quaint surrounding countryside, scored to trickling piano texture that doesn't so much complement the drama as provide a marshmallow mattress topper. A film with a geriatric theme needn't be geriatric in pace and tone. It patronises the very people whose plight it seeks to illuminate. How about some psychological insight? Some effort to chart this melancholy territory? Okay, we see Matthew's desire to emerge from his malaise. But what does that malaise really look like? Feel like? By the end we're none the wiser, and one is left concluding that the film simply isn't trying hard enough on any level.

"Sometimes you meet someone that requires all the love you have to give." Matthew Morgan (Caine) has just lost his wife and his world no longer makes sense. Living in Paris and unable to speak the language he only has one friend left. On a train one day he meets Pauline (Poésy) and strikes up an instant friendship. After Matthew tries something drastic his two estranged children show up and old tensions come back. This is a hard movie to describe. It's not boring but not much happens. It's slow moving but keeps you interested. Michael Caine is great in this and this is not so much a love story but more of a redemption story. I am finding it hard to come up with something to say about this not because I didn't like it but because of the subject. This is really just another widow father and estranged children movie but this feels like so much more. This is a movie where you just have to see it to see what I mean. I recommend this. Overall, a cookie cutter plot but anything but a cookie cutter movie. I give it a B+.

Before I get to the review, I should point out something as a bit of a warning. "Last Love" is an existential film that is often rather depressing. It also is about bad relationships and loss. I am not against films like these and sometimes I even LIKE a depressing film. However, if you are already depressed, I would avoid watching the film--as it might make it a lot worse. Seriously! As I sat and watched "Last Love", I couldn't help but think repeatedly 'why did they make Michael Caine an American in this film?!'. And, frankly, I assume most Americans would wonder this, as he sounded just like a Brit trying (in vain) to sound American. Weren't there any folks on the set who noticed this? And, is this perhaps Caine's attempt to punish the Americans for casting Dick Van Dyke as an Englishman in "Mary Poppins"?! All I know is that casting him as a Brit would have sure made a lot more sense! The story begins with Matthew Morgan (Caine) at his wife's bedside after she dies. Next you see that although time has passed, Caine has, in effect, died as well though his body still functions. He couldn't care less about his appearance or even which day it was and is on the verge of suicide. However, a chance encounter with a vivacious (but not overly so) lady on a bus (Clémence Poésy) leads him to re-think his life and his desire to die. However, what happens next is something I pretty much assume you'll not expect. Just watch the film and you'll see what I mean. What follows is a study of a family which cannot communicate as well as a total stranger (Poésy) whose motivations for being involved with them are strange and inexplicable. Some may like it, as the acting is good, but I found the characters to be incredibly selfish and a difficult to like or care about. Obviously some others felt differently, as the reviews for this feel bad movie are mostly very positive. And, perhaps the film could serve as a warning to folks NOT to be like the idiots in this depressing film. Overall, some very good acting but a film that is just awful to watch. While I assume that big-name stars don't usually read their own reviews on IMDb, I do hope that IF Mr. Caine actually reads this that he strongly takes to heart my suggestion that he NEVER attempts an American accent again. I would have thought his awkward accent in "Hurry Sundown" back in 1967 would have cured him of this, but "Last Love" is proof he was willing to inexplicably try it again. He is a wonderful actor---just not a master of accents and there's nothing wrong with that.

I last saw Micheal Caine in 'Flawless' and both he and the movie were brilliant. I don't know what possessed him to star in 'Last Love' and even worse, he speaks with a ghastly American accent; its the opposite equivalent of Dick Van Dyke's terrible cockney accent in Mary Poppins. Not only that but he had to cope with this awful unintelligent and unconvincing dialogue,it's the worst movie I have ever seen him in-poor devil! Gillian Anderson has a powerful screen presence and I loved her as Miss Havisham but she too was fighting a losing battle with a wooden script. In fact the screenplay and dialogue were just plain sentimental and tawdry throughout; all of the main actors obviously struggled. Clemence Poesy is obviously a gutsy and characterful actor and I hope to see her star in other and better made movies. I was so hoping that this would be a fun independent movie and I love to encourage this but sadly, Last Love, just doesn't make the grade and will soon, I am sure, be relegated as another forgotten attempt even with the inclusion of some, at times, quite arresting shots of Paris. Too bad! . .

Just finished watching this show, and while the story was OK and the acting basically good, I was very bothered by Michael Caine's accent. I actually did a Google search for "Michael Caine stupid accent Mr Morgan's Last Love"... thinking surely someone else noticed. And sure enough, the "Sad but Stunning" review also mentioned something about it, as well as several other hits. Here's another comment about about his accent (from chapter1 take1 blog spot in case the link gets censored): chapter1-take1 dot blogspot.com/2013/02/ dreaming-of-France- mr-morgans-last-love.html Being from Houston, there were times when it sounded like he wanted to pretend to be from the south, but more of the time there was the obvious British sound to his words. It was inconsistent, and absolutely not close to sounding correct for any regional accent that I've heard in my 60+ years. Why not just be a Brit who taught in America and then moved to Paris? It bothered me so much that I would make sure to mention it to anyone contemplating seeing this otherwise OK film.