Search - Last Goodbye on DVD

Interesting

E. Batton | New York, NY United States | 06/24/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The film lacks some cohesiveness, yet it turns in some fine performances from some new young actors and actresses. Of course, David Carradine and Faye Dunaway, gave polished and intreguing performances. But the most riviting performance came from a new young actress by the name of Sara Stanton. I would recommend watching it just for her. I ended up wishing that the movie would tell us more and more about her character, Jen Bonner."

Shards of life

Sanpete | in Utah | 10/04/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This film takes several pieces of several lives and slowly shows how they fit together, though not all in order. There are four main characters, a young down-and-out former actor, a young actress with a hit TV show, a young rock star with a hit album, and an underage girl groupie. Each feels unloved by the one or ones they love and is suffering and causing suffering because of this. The film does build, does have forward momentum--the final wind-up is impressively put together. By the end, things wind up tightly enough and make decent sense, though I don't think I completely understood how everything fits. The overall feel is gritty, serious, but with humorous aspects. The script is good, real. The cinematography is very good, the music is strong, the acting is for the most part outstanding, each of the main characters well cast. I was consistently drawn in throughout and will probably want to see it again.



Some of the humor comes in the form of a parody of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, played basically straight, which is to say, with the same kind of tongue-in-cheek that characterized the TV series, and is all the more amusing for being so dead on. There are also scenes from a TV morning show, a radio interview, and a first meeting with a producer, each just slightly exaggerating some of the uncomfortable or absurd points that are common to such things, to humorous effect but often at the same time highlighting the pain apparent in the characters. Much of the film has what would be funny points that play rather black because of the sad state of the characters. But the film isn't really a downer. The characters aren't bad people, and though things don't go well, they don't go as badly as they could. The ending can be regarded as a step towards better things. If we're to take it at face value.



There are minor parts for Faye Dunaway and David Carradine, who do fine, but neither is any better than the rest of the cast, I don't think.



There's a commentary track that appears to be no more than a bunch of subtle and not so subtle gags. I gave up on it after about a half hour, but you might find it amusing."