Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

JinRoz For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

btm1 Perhaps because I don't, it always amazes me how well some really good authors (Shakespeare of course, and Ann Tyler come to mind) understand the complexities of the human condition. Fred Schepisi wrote the screenplay for "Last Orders" (he also is the Director) based on the Booker prize winning novel of the same name by Graham Swift. That is what this film is about - the complexities of people's dealings with each other and dealing with their own thoughts, plans, memories, and regrets.The title refers to a request Jack (double Oscar winner Michael Cain) left for his ashes to be scattered at Margate (a historic British seaside resort). Jack had an outwardly effervescent personality that caused friends he had made in his youth (he came of age just before the start of World War II) to remain life-long friends. Despite the war, in many ways those years of beginning their adult lives were the best in these people's lives. Perhaps that is the case for the majority of people.They had their futures to look forward to. One was a prizefighter who never had more than modest success. Another (the most steadfast of the friends) starts out as a funeral director and that seems to satisfy his desires. Jack, a butcher, inherited his business from his father and always dreamed that his own son would enter the business as well, but that's not what the son wants. He and his wife, Amy (Dame Helen Mirren), also have a mentally defective daughter who has been institutionalized since childhood. One of the significant conflicts is that Jack and Amy have opposite ways of dealing with that tragedy. Amy decides not to accompany the group when they take the ashes to Margate.Ray (Bob Hoskins), who Jack nicknamed "Lucky" because he pulled Jack into a trench half a second before a bullet would have struck him, owned a motorcar business but is more interested in playing the horses, with which he has had some success. He has a daughter who many years ago moved to distant Australia after falling in love with an Australian of questionable prospects, and they stopped writing years ago. Ray's wife had divorced him after she learned that Ray had assisted the newlyweds financially in their move to Australia.These loves and conflicts are revealed piecemeal via flashbacks as the individuals contemplate, and it is our coming to realize that relationships are more complex than what they seem on the surface.Not only is the screenplay based on a great novel, the cast is an ensemble of some of the most respected British actors, who all are great in their roles. They cast JJ Feild as the youthful Jack, and he strongly resembles Michael Caine in his early films. One warning: Some of the British colloquialisms and references may be unfamiliar to an American audience.

daviddouglas This is a well told poignant story with a collection of great actors unsurpassed in any films of the past 10 years. Other than the regrettable casting of Kelly Reilly, a good actress, in the roll of the young Amy played by Helen Mirren who looks nothing like Helen Mirren nor has similar body language or general presence to her. However; this one small flaw does not keep this from being a very memorable film experience for the viewer.This well-crafted film has the appeal of being a learning experience as well as one of entertainment. I am a 'baby boomer' and most of us are coming to grips that life is a limited proposition and that the truth of life is that if one has made good friends and brought joy to the lives of others that we have lived a rich and full life and can face death without regret. If you have not seen this film watch it. If you have only seen it once, see it again as the second time viewing is even more rich with new learning and reward.

davidcorne245 Americans will be pleased to hear that they are now incorporating subtitles on remote controls so that they can understand films like this which they perceive to be in a foreign language. Strange how the English never need subtitles apart from when Marlon Brando or Sylvester Stallone are on screen. The film was spoilt for me by the ridiculous toupee worn by Bob Hoskins (probably hired from Tony Bennett), the immense eyebrows of David Hemmings (The film's budget didn't run to a pair of garden shears to cut them) and the fact that professional Cockney Ray Winstone was once again playing professional Cockney Ray Winstone. Add the fact that Michael Caine was once again playing Michael Caine, I felt somewhat unfulfilled by this film despite all the gushing praise lavished on it on the preceding pages. I am not alone in my not liking of this film as someone at my office today on responding to my query about whether he had seen this said quote, "Yeah, bleedin' miserable rubbish."

didi-5 This is something of an old boy's reunion, as Vic (Tom Courtenay), Len (David Hemmings), Ray (Bob Hoskins), and Vince (Ray Winstone) go on a trip to Margate Pier to dispose of their friend Jack's ashes (Jack is played in several flashback scenes by Michael Caine, while Helen Mirren is his wife Amy).During the journey we see several snippets of conflict between the four men and witness many events from their lives in flashback - Vince's decision not to follow his family trade of butcher's shops; Ray's short-lived affair with Amy; Vince getting Len's daughter pregnant. We also see something of Jack and Amy's marriage, from their first meetings and flirtations, to the comfort of a long partnership. The fact that a severely disabled daughter, June, both keeps them apart and together is interesting.As a film 'Last Orders' feels comfortably old-fashioned. The acting of the principals is assured and as such, we are swept along with the plot, however improbable and coincidental it may be at times. None of the characters are clichéd, and all are likable to some extent - we can see how events of the past have made them what they now are.Shamefully put into cinemas on a limited distribution, 'Last Orders' got a new lease of life when it became a free giveaway DVD in a UK newspaper, which meant it was potentially available to a wider audience (which makes me question whether in fact the use of these promotions could be to let films which quickly left cinemas be widely viewed).