Raise your glasses (Last Orders (DVD))

Member Name: george_lazenby

Product:	Last Orders (DVD)
Date:	19/01/02 (106 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Superb performances, stylish direction

Disadvantages: None

Based on the novel by Graham Swift, 'Last Orders' is a beautiful film, dangerously unfashionable in its subject matter, but ultimately very persuasive. As if the good people of the UGC Didsbury wanted to really get their punters down, I was given free tickets to see 'Last Orders' when attending a free screening of 'Iris' - given that the latter is about Alzheimers, and the former is about a group of friends taking a journey to Margate Pier to scatter the ashes of a dead friend, you have to wonder what they're up to.

But 'Last Orders' isn't a sad film, despite its subject. Michael Caine is Jack Dobbs, a Bermondsey butcher who has just died; his friends Ray (Bob Hoskins), Lenny (David Hemmings) and Vic (Tom Courteney) and his son Vince (Ray Winstone) gather to fulfil his final request to scatter his ashes. Meanwhile, Jack's wife Amy (Helen Mirren) makes her weekly visit to June, the couple's mentally handicapped daughter, who Jack was barely able to acknowledge. As the journey goes on, the tensions between the people Jack has left behind stop simmering and start to boil, while the death tempts everyone to reach back into their memories - here are flashbacks a-go-go.

The mouthwatering prospect of Caine, Hoskins, Winstone and Courteney should be enough to get any cinemagoer worth their salt straight in the queue. Though I read and enjoyed the book a few years back, it was seeing the poster that made me think - that film I just have to see. I wasn't disappointed. Because his role is effectively a catalyst, whose death is used to spark off a series of stories and revelations, Caine is actually a supporting player (JJ Field, the actor playing Jack as a young man has as much screen time), and I was a bit sorry he didn't play a bigger part, but generally, the acting is so classy you hardly notice that the first-named star is playing second fiddle.

It's a very gentle film - a substantial pr
oportion of the film takes place in the car (I was impressed by Fred Schepisi's attempts to animate these sequences, using very clever camerawork to sweep around the faces and make them more dynamic) - while the hopping around in time might irritate people who like a nice straightforward story. Needless to say, I overheard a bloke leaving the cinema complaining that he had spent two hours waiting for something to happen.

Reader, this man is a complete moron; if you are this man, you have a very unfortunate haircut, sir.

Anyway, intercut with the gentle comedy and high drama of the men's journey to Margate, you have the tale of Vince and Jack's complicated relationship, the endless tragedy of June, the end of Ray's marriage, Ray and Jack's experiences in World War Two, and some surprising revelations - stuff happens, believe me. It's a very moving film which is ultimately about a very unfashionable subject - the dynamics of male friendship, and the way in which it takes a death to make men face up to how they feel about each other. Worse yet, these are old men - despite the youthful faces and golden glow of the flashbacks, this is a film about people facing up to the end of life, effectively being forced to contemplate their own death.

And it's funny. The script gets the tone and feel of the novel right, and the camaraderie between the actors is staggering. Every one of them is perfect, and it's a real opportunity to see great actors being given proper parts: Caine can do no wrong these days, while it's good to see Tom Courteney being given an opportunity to demonstrate his elegant flair for screen acting. I can't reconcile the sylph-like David Hemmings of 'Blow Up' with the barrel-chested, gravel-voiced old man he is now, but he's perfectly cast as the angry, resentful Lenny. Best of all though, is the fact that Ray Winstone gets to play a regular human being with real feelings, and Bob
Hoskins gets the central role, dominating the film with his humane portrayal of the dependable, if surprising Ray.

Given the cast of notable hard-cases, this is a tender, delicate film. There's no killing, no violence, no sensation; it's not fast and furious and if you go looking for thrills, there are none of the conventional cinema kind. But if you want a masterclass in screen acting, given by the kind of cast you're fortunate to see assembled, hunt this lovely film out, and drink deep.

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