Food, drink, film and other random thoughts from The Lone Star State.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Exit The Planet

Its an interesting premise for a film but its also usually one that falls flat on its face, too predictable. I'm talking about the end of the world.

But I liked this one.


Last Night


The audience isn't directly told that the end of the world is coming. It just leaks out from under the initial scene in a slow drip. And when you do finally realize what is going on, you are forced into catching up emotionally with a dark comedy because the characters have somehow processed this fact and have gotten on with the business of living their last day. Some are trying new things like robbery and setting fire to buildings. Some are reliving their most happy moments, like Christmas. While others are picking off items from their sexual to-do list, which they have scribbled from floor to ceiling on their kitchen walls.

There is drama, of course. Like poor Sandra Oh, who is trying to get home to her husband so they can have their last meal, but the cards seemed stacked against her. But what does that matter, its not like she will need to apologize the next day, there is no next day.

In the end, the film does a nice job of boiling down the irrelevant minutae of life and getting to the one thing that seems to matter most - connecting to people. And it does that with a snappy soundtrack and an anchoring performance from Sandra Oh.

8.5/10

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6 Comments:

Blogger purpletwinkie said...

Nothing says "comedy" quite like the end of the world.

9:08 AM

 
Blogger Jim said...

Unless its a pandemic, gotta love dark comedies :)

1:28 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

O.K., need to add this one to the netflix queue. Sandra and a snappy soundtrack, I'm game. Oh, I like that pic that the purpletwinkie has up of you. You look quite surprised about something :)

8:41 PM

 
Blogger Jim said...

LOL, I think I know that one, Jason. It was on graduation night after 5 glasses of wine and 3 Skyy Tonics.

8:46 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love Sandra Oh, she's awesome!

9:08 PM

 
Blogger Jim said...

You'll like her in this one too, Derek. I think it was before she did Greys.

8:12 AM

 

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