My Film Review

UNDERSTANDABLY, THE LAST message has already drawn comparisons to American Psycho with both male leads having that sense of mental instability which surrounds their lives. Within the two films, both heavily feature a sumptuous woman who is the main love interest to the protagonist – but the similarities are only in the broad sense. Where American Psycho’s focus is all about the experimental idiosyncrasy with fear and violence, The Last Message is more interested with the despondency of not being able to accept the fact that two people who were an item are no longer.

In the monotonous opening sequence we learn that Melissa (Katrina Allison) receives a significant amount of phone messages from Alex (Adam Marsh) in the hope of an avid response for Alex’s sake and also the audiences. Visually, there is a cycle of apathetic exposition which insinuates a little bit of Alex’s psychopathic ego that he possesses. This lingers throughout the film and gradually helps us as an audience to cast a decision of what this man is capable of. The next portion of the film – the affection section – is appealing enough but can be seen as dreary and generic. Alex goes in search of Melissa hoping he can have the assistance and help from her friends to find out what is going on but that wasn’t going to happen – was it? Whereas his presumptuous best buddy Tom (Harry Bradford, in a role so poorly written it seems like something personal) is there for him to give the most important advice of his life. Tom’s advice does not really take effect as Alex comes out with words such as “Don’t say that, she’s everything to me and she’s still mine” which indicates that he is not going to give up on her and not listen to the best advice he could of ever heard. It’s a relief that there has only been one badly written character with the lead (Marsh) saving the day and being stupendous in the latter stages of the film Marsh plays Alex down to a T, even if the characters roles around are not so great. You also have to give credit to Oliver Quinton for Marsh’s performance with infusing Alex’s character into a more twisted and neo – farcical psycho that makes the film obsessive theme a whole lot more interesting. Quinton also defies the critics with the second half of the film described as “Spectacular”, “Staggering” and being the most unpredictable climax to a psychological thriller ever.

Thankfully, the second half of the film is fantastic as the film takes a fairly dramatic tonal shift, entirely for the better with a stronger sense of narrative structure that allows Marsh to create massive amounts of charisma and power. This is not to mention the explosive moments that confuse the audience by insisting on a mixed reaction. It’s these moments which Quinton binds in his taut direction with scenes that depict the egotistical psycho in a way that has never been done before – well, I certainly have not seen anything like it. As the film does gradually accelerate into a clever dash towards the big climax it uses a few simple but remarkably effective camera techniques to keep you thrilled. It’s a testament to how exactly the film builds to its conclusion that only days later you do realise this finale is one of the best you have ever seen.

VERDICT If you can make it through the bland schmaltz of the first half you’ll be rewarded with a astonishingly intense climax. This could be a thriller that is remembered as an all time classic.