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LAST ORDERS Send This Review to a Friend
Writer-director Fred Schepisi, whose international career began in his native Australia, gets excitement out of making different types of films and has an impressive record that includes such disparate achievements as "The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith," "A Cry in the Dark," "The Devil's Playground," "The Russia House," "Roxanne" "Plenty," "I.Q." and "Six Degrees of Separation." He has moved to new terrain with "Last Orders," which surely ranks among his best, both because of the acting he draws from his impressive cast and the skill with which he interweaves the lives of his characters, past and present.
Based on Graham Swift's Booker Prize-winning novel, "Last Orders" gets its title from the instructions that Jack Dodds (Michael Caine), a hard-working butcher, leaves for the disposal of his ashes after his death. He wants his close pals to take them to the working class seaside resort Margate and scatter them there. Loyalty commands that they follow through, and it is on their journey to Margate, with sidetracked pub stops, that their lives unfold for them and for us. Repressed feelings and events of the past charge to the surface, and both strong emotion and humor spring from the bizarre mission, the men's relationship with the dear departed Jack and the dynamics of their lives and attitudes. Jack is always present in spirit as well as in the container they cart along.
Fortunately, Jack is also present in flashbacks, which means yet another fine performance by Michael Caine. While dying in the hospital Jack entrusts something important to his close gambler friend Ray (Bob Hoskins). The other buddies include Jack's son Vince (Ray Winstone), a used car dealer, former boxer Lenny (David Hemmings) and undertaker Vic (Tom Courtenay). Although not on the trip to Margate, Jack's wife Amy (Helen Mirren) plays a pivotal role as we learn about tragic aspects of her life. It comes as no surprise that Mirren is terrific in the part. But all of these actors--Caine, Hoskins, Winstone, Hemmings, Courtenay and Mirren--are in top form. It is sheer pleasure to savor their work.
Schepisi deftly balances the emotion, the humor and the closeness that comes from belonging to a generation that survived the ordeals of war. He and cinematographer Brian Tufano also give the film a convincing sense of place. There is perfection in the smoothness with which the stories unfold as "Last Orders" builds its impact, all the while being marvelously entertaining, classy filmmaking about seemingly ordinary people who are in their ways quite extraordinary. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
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