Last Embrace

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Blu B Should be called Alfred Hitchcock's Greatest Hits because it's basically a mashup of pieces from a ton of Hitchcock flicks. Homages to Psycho, an ending that mimics North By Northwest, a crazy plot filled with twists and turns like so many of his work, and camerawork/direction that feels like it's almost trying to exactly copy his style. This has a Golden Era style feel to the acting, soundtrack, and direction. The problem here is besides trying too much to copy Hitchcock instead of do it's own thing (Which Demme would learn later) the plot is filled with SOOOOO many plot holes it's borderline insane. This story makes enough sense but it's so farfetched to begin with and is just crazy. It has an almost J.J. Abhrams like pacing where it just throws SOOO much crazy stuff at you nonstop and it doesn't want you to dwell on the plot holes. Why would he wait till on the train to ask the guy if he can trust him and what there doing? Why would she wait and lead him on sooooo long to kill him? How did hhe know to rip off the metal covering to find the symbol? How is everyone in the right place right after a fight or crazy event happens? It really never explains that stuff or sets it up. It just throws it at you. This oddly enough gives it a decent pacing though because it's entertaining despite not making much logic. Everything else is alright about it though. The ending is good with the falls as a memorable location and the one part that has good buildup and hardly any words to it but works well. The acting is trying but the dialouge is clunky at times, the two leads don't have much special chemistry, and everyone else is forgettable. Skip This. There isn't anything here for Demme fans as he's trying to imitate Hitchcock and yet there's nothing here for Hitch's fans either because of how much of a mess things are. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 12/25/24 Full Review Audience Member Good direction, Roy Scheider is great but the story has plot holes. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review delysid d pretty dumb story, but it entertained me for one rainy day Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/07/22 Full Review Audience Member An ambitious whodunit that loses steam half way through- due to both a heavy-handed plot and an almost abandonment of care for camerawork. It feels like Demme's wannabe-Hitchcock, but with hammy pulp-style acting. It's not bad though, it has some amusing moments and some really dynamic camera maneuvers in the beginning. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Audience Member One of the few Jonathan Demme films I had not seen and it's a really good one. Distancing himself from his exploitation roots, Demme made this obvious Hitchcock homage that really delivers. Roy Scheider plays a mentally unstable CIA agent who receives a mysterious threatening letter,w which then serves as the McGuffin to move the story forward. There's also a superb supporting cast that includes Janet Margolin, John Glover, Charles Napier, Christopher Walken, Mandy Patinkin and ALF's dad, Max Wright, who no matter what film or TV show he's in, I always like to imagine that when he's offscreen that he's going home to that crazy ALF. Old Hollywood composer Miklós Rózsa provided the score and longtime Demme collaborator Tak Fujimoto did the photography. Casting was by Scott Rudin long before he became an Oscar award winning film produced of films like "No Country for Old Men" or "The Social Network." Outside of DePalma, this is probably one of the best Hitchcock homages, moving at a fast pace, with strong cast and some really good set pieces, particularly the climactic one taking place at Niagra Falls. Well worth watching. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/31/23 Full Review Audience Member "Last Embrace" is an incompetently executed, wildly incoherent and overly melodramatic neo-noir thriller that's one of the dullest, most tepidly inspired pieces of cinema I've ever watched. Aside from Roy Scheider, whose performance is so over-the-top that it's almost admirable, the acting is laughably poor from the entire cast, and everything from the pacing to the direction to the lighting is painfully inept. How Jonathan Demme, Tak Fujimoto, Barry Malkin and Miklós Rózsa could get together and make sure a godawful hunk of soap opera-ish garbage is beyond me. It's an experience I hope never to endure again. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 01/16/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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