The Last Sign (2005)

Memorable, crazy movie

Don't Believe the Hype

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

If you are looking for a thriller this isn't for you.I think this movie fit better into "dramatic love story" category.The acting is good, I really liked the sadness that Andy McDowell put into her character: a lovable woman that is trying to recover from a bad marriage ended with the death of her husband.The husband (Tim Roth) was a good and caring man but sad experiences turned him into an alcoholic and so their marriage became a sad and intolerable relationship. Then he died in a car wreck.I found beautiful the opening shot, that shows a long flight above woods, trees, lakes, and rivers .. and then gradually get more zoomed until you can see a smashed car with a dead man inside.The movie is very subtle in its tones and I liked the set design, the house and the various characters.In this story ghosts have a central part but, despite that, it isn't exactly a ghost story; I'd call this a love story featuring some ghosts.If they presented the movie as a love story I'd give it a 6 or 7, but all was telling me that this was a thriller, which it isn't, so I gave it 5.Guido

I don't know why I watched this whole movie. No emotion was displayed or evoked by any of the major characters except perhaps Margot Kidder. Her character was the only one that interested me. I kept hoping for something new to bring the movies many events together but it was not to happen. Plenty happens in this film but it all feels in vain as nothing happens to tie it all together or to add any drama.I had a very hard time with the roles of Andie MacDowell and Samuel Le Bihan. They do not display any attractive body language. A single small scene of Andie in a sexy nightie seems completely out of place after all her previous night scenes. Never once did I feel any attraction between them making the final scene look awkward to say the least.

Hollywood seems increasingly interested in stories that deal with speaking with the dead, from the paranormal scientific approach to the solace for grief stance to the old-fashioned ghost tales. THE LAST SIGN sort of combines all of these approaches but does it with surprising subtlety and restraint and simply uses such ideas to speak to greater ideals such as forgiveness.Director Douglas Law uses a strong cast to relate the story of a widow Kathy (Andie MacDowell) whose alcoholic, abusive physician husband Jeremy (Tim Roth) recently died in an auto accident. Still living in their large home in Canada, Kathy and her three children are coping fairly well until Kathy begins to receive phone calls at 12:15 AM from someone who remains silent. Out of financial need and out of fear she rents the cottage on the grounds to a handsome young man Marc (Samuel Le Bihan) who has an aura of the strange about him: is it real or imagined? At Kathy's work her boss Isabel (Margot Kidder) keeps her grounded and when Kathy relates seeing images of Jeremy and hearing suspicious sounds both of which cause flashbacks to Jeremy's abusive personality, Isabel encourages Kathy to attempt to speak to the dead and discover the secrets of messages and signs from the departed. Kathy's friend (the chronically underused fine actress Mimi Kuzyk) likewise is supportive and encourages Kathy to accept the attentive advances of Marc. Kathy's confused life calms when she is informed that the last sign that a departed can give is the one emotional trait that has troubled her most. The reveling of that sign from Jeremy and the resultant changes in Kathy and her family's life form a rather tender ending to this successful thriller movie.The surprises come from the quality of performances: Tim Roth even without significant lines creates a wholly believable character; Margot Kidder returns to the screen after her notorious battle with bad publicity and gives an unforgettable performance of a quirky, slightly wacky but comic and caring oddball; Andie MacDowell keeps the difficult character of a widow with mixed reactions to her husband's death in believable focus at all times. The lighting and camera work are superb, for once letting our imagination about ghosts take precedence over that tired use of cartoon computer animation! Not a great movie, but certainly heads above much of the current Hollywood glut of other films in this genre. Worth watching. Grady Harp

OK, I am a red-blooded female. Sometimes I rent a flick simply because a good-looking actor is in it. When I saw the DVD box for this one I recognized Samuel Le Bihan from "Brotherhood of the Wolf". Since I thought he was "all that and a bag of chips" in that one, I decided to check him out in this one. Also, I like Andie MacDowell well enough and I was curious to see what their fellow cast mate Margot Kidder (Lois Lane in the Christopher Reeve "Superman" flicks) looks like these days.Undeniably there are much better flicks out there, but this one wasn't all bad. There are a few kinda creepy/mysterious scenes and some interesting camera shots and angles. And, yes, Samuel Le Bihan provided some enjoyable eye candy to offset the creepy-as-usual Tim Roth. By the way, has Roth ever played a sympathetic character? If you like the current hit TV series "Medium" starring Patricia Arquette, you will most likely enjoy this movie. It sort of reminded me of some story lines on that show.In general, I believe film audiences are jaded in the 21st Century. We are desensitized by the plethora of special effects and blast-'em-up extravaganzas with high body counts. It seems that fewer people want to invest the time in a lower-key film, such as this one, in which seemingly random details come together in at least a somewhat cohesive whole at the end. That's not to say the film wrapped up all loose ends, because it didn't. That is one reason I didn't give it more stars. Another reason is the uneven acting. In other words, some of the cast provided more convincing portrayals than others. And, Margot Kidder is as goofy as ever. I hadn't seen her in anything in a number of years.For my time and money, I would take this film any day over "The Blair Witch Project", which, to me, is the worst movie ever.