A superb adaptation of Joan Didion's anti- novel "The Last Thing I Wanted, " Brilliantly cast, performed, and scripted and directed. The cast is crowned by Ann Hathaway's gripping enactment of protagonist Elena McMahon, a woman precariously ever her head. The script improves on the novel as a narrative by providing it with McMahon as a point of view with whom we can identify; but it does leaves the viewer potentially disoriented by assuming viewer wanky knowledge of the film's context-- Reagan's early 1980s Central American policy -- and its elliptical art film style. (It's the "L'Avventura" of spy films.)
Were it not so certain to be substantively and stylistically elusive to most, I'd have given it 9 stars instead of 8.
Viewers interested in the film's political context but perplexed by "Last Thing" ''s elusive use of it might like look at the less esoteric s 1983 "El Salvador,' 1986 " Under Fire" and 2017 "American Made."
Were it not so certain to be substantively and stylistically elusive to most, I'd have given it 9 stars instead of 8.
Viewers interested in the film's political context but perplexed by "Last Thing" ''s elusive use of it might like look at the less esoteric s 1983 "El Salvador,' 1986 " Under Fire" and 2017 "American Made."