The Last Thing He Wanted

Starring: Anne Hathaway, Ben Affleck, Rosie Perez, Willem Dafoe, Edi Gathegi, Mel Rodriguez, Onate Aprile, Toby Jones, Carlos Leal
Directed by: Dee Rees
Rating: R
Genre: Drama, Thriller
2020

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A journalist (Anne Hathaway) help her father (Willem Dafoe) and reluctantly gets caught up in a dangerous illegal arms deal.

Review:

Tim: The Last Thing He Wanted is a movie I actually feel some regret about seeing. That's rare for me. It's not that the movie is terrible (although it's pretty bad), it's that it is completely unnecessary. It was a Netflix film (Netflix really needs to get their act together on quality) and while it has some big names, it's the kind of film I could have scrolled right past and nothing would have been missing from my life. Dee Rees directs a totally superfluous film.

I read somewhere that the novel upon which this is based is quite good. If that's the case, something went horribly wrong in the translation to the screen. The movie never feels like it matters. I couldn't have cared less about the characters. There's so much exposition. The movie takes itself so seriously, when nothing it offers is all that interesting. Plus, it has one of the lamest titles I've ever heard. A year from now I'll see this movie on my list and wonder, "What the heck was that movie?" Rees directs a film that might not be awful, but it's utterly forgettable in every sense.

The story felt unnecessarily convoluted. It was almost laughable how it was presented. Movies can be so successful when they challenge their audience with an intricate, twisting story. That doesn't happen here. The characters and plot are so badly explained that I felt lost for much of the film. Full disclosure, I still have no idea why the movie is called The Last Thing He Wanted. What's the last thing who wanted? Her father? Ben Affleck's character? It was probably there, I just missed it because I was unconscious from boredom at the time.

Speaking of the cast, they don't do much. I always want to like Anne Hathaway, but struggle to do so. She's clearly a talented actress. Her seriousness and restraint feels comical here, though. It's like she's completely unaware she's acting her heart out in a movie almost no one will see and those who do won't care. I never liked her character, I never felt the least bit of empathy for her. It's an odd performance- she's so focused on being gritty and tough that she forgets to give us a reason to care. We spend so much time with her character, yet by the end, she still felt like a stranger to me. Rosie Perez has significantly less screen time, yet I liked her character more. Ben Affleck felt completely wasted. He's nearly nonexistent through the first half of the movie and then shows up randomly as a more important character than makes sense. I didn't buy it. His performance is fine, but his character wasn't handled properly. Willem Dafoe gives a fairly good performance, but it never felt like he was integrated into the main story. He exists on the periphery and it blunts his impact. I liked seeing Toby Jones, even though his presence felt like part of a weird subplot towards the end of the movie. He's good here. As a whole, the movie assembles a talented cast and then squanders their potential.

The Last Thing He Wanted is a bad movie. I might have given it a slightly higher score than I should have, based on the cast trying. It's always fun seeing talented people, even when their performances aren't fully realized. It's a movie I kind of floated through, never caring too much about anything on screen. It's the kind of movie that makes me want to be more discerning about what I watch on Netflix. It's a movie I will never see again.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 5.5



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