Last Dance

R

Released May 3, 1996

1 hr. 43 min.

Drama

List

30%

23 Reviews

Tomatometer

58%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

A young lawyer (Rob Morrow) is assigned to a clemency case for Cindy Liggett (Sharon Stone), a woman on death row for first degree murder. As he investigates her case the two develop a friendship. Her execution date draws closer and he uncovers errors in her trial that his bosses would rather he ignore.

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Sarah Nicole C

We watched this movie in my government class in high school! I loved it! It was great!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

10/27/22

Full Review

Audience Member

Trying to capitalize on Sharon Stone's Oscar nomination for Casino (her one and only nomination to date), Last Dance is a hokey and pokey death-row drama about a female inmate who has lost all hope of a reprieve from her crime after spending more than a decade behind bars awaiting her execution. Convicted of murder twelve years earlier at the age of 19, Cindy Liggett (Stone - Basic Instinct, The Mighty, Bobby) is given one last chance at clemency when a new clemency board attorney (Rob Morrow - Quiz Show, The Emperor's Club, "Northern Exposure") is assigned her case. By pointing out inconsistencies with her earlier trial in addition to claiming that as Cindy had been under the influence of mind-altering drugs (crack cocaine) at the time of the murder, she is no longer a threat to anybody as she has been fully rehabilitated. Everything about Last Dance is sub-par and at its very best moments it almost reaches mediocrity. While Stone was impressive as a greedy, cold, coke-head trophy wife in Casino, Last Dance's director Bruce Beresford cannot replicate Martin Scorsese's accomplishment with the actress. For the most part, the film is dull and lifeless (bad pun) and it did not help that during its theatrical run Last Dance opened a couple of months after another (but far superior) death row drama that won its lead actress an Oscar (that would be Dead Man Walking). As neither of the films are rousing crowd-pleasers, seeing one is enough; and 99 out of ... well 100 out of 100 times I'd recommend seeing the good one -- Dead Man Walkiing. Last Dance can sit them all out.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/24/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Rick Hayes (Rob Morrow) is a young lawyer who gets a new job and is assigned a clemency case on Cindy Liggett (Sharon Stone) who has been on death row for 12 years for double murder of a wealthy man's son and his girlfriend. Rick tries to save Cindy from execution but her chances for clemency are shaped by local politics. (Jack Thompson plays the Governor, Randy Quaid is Rick's veteran boss and Peter Gallagher is his chief of staff, as well as being Rick's brother.) But Rick is determined to slay the dragons for her against predictably hopeless odds and moves heaven and earth to save her from death by lethal injection as the countdown to D-Day draws closer.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Sharon Stone really showed some acting chops in this

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/19/23

Full Review

Audience Member

i don't like the ending, but nice movie...

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/12/23

Full Review

Audience Member

this movie brought me to tears

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/23/23

Full Review

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Bruce Beresford

Director

Sharon Stone

Cindy Liggett

Rob Morrow

Rick Hayes

Randy Quaid

Sam Burns

Peter Gallagher

John Hayes

Jack Thompson

The Governer

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David Ansen

Newsweek

You don't have to have seen the infinitely superior Dead Man Walking to sense the fatal lack of real-life texture in Last Dance.

Feb 22, 2018

Full Review

Lisa Schwarzbaum

Entertainment Weekly

Rated: C

Sep 7, 2011

Full Review

Boston Globe

Rated: 2.5/4

Aug 25, 2002

Full Review

Mal Vincent

The Virginian-Pilot

Morrow is simply not up to playing an obsessed lawyer with a mission. Someone seems intent upon encouraging his switch from the small screen.

Rated: 1.5/4

Mar 1, 2022

Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Rated: 1/5

Jun 17, 2005

Full Review

Michael Dequina

TheMovieReport.com

Too manufactured and 'Hollywood' to elicit any real emotion.

Rated: 2/4

Jan 7, 2005

Full Review

Read all reviews

Synopsis

A young lawyer (Rob Morrow) is assigned to a clemency case for Cindy Liggett (Sharon Stone), a woman on death row for first degree murder. As he investigates her case the two develop a friendship. Her execution date draws closer and he uncovers errors in her trial that his bosses would rather he ignore.

Director: Bruce Beresford
Executive Producer: Richard Luke Rothschild
Screenwriter: Steven Haft, Ron Koslow, Ron Koslow
Distributor: Touchstone Pictures
Production Co: Touchstone Pictures
Rating: R (Violence|Some Drug Content|Language)
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): May 3, 1996, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 1, 2013
Box Office (Gross USA): $5.9M
Sound Mix: Stereo, Dolby Digital, Dolby A, Surround, Dolby SR
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)

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