Movie Review: THE LAST BREATH

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: July 26th, 2024 / 02:10 AM

THE LAST BREATH movie poster | ©2024 RLJEFilms

Rating: R
Stars: Kim Spearman, Jack Parr, Alexander Arnold, Erin Mullen, Arlo Carter, Julian Sands
Writer: Nick Saltrese, story by Alexander Prendergast and Nick Saltrese
Director: Joachim Hedér
Distributor: RLJE Films
Release Date: July 26, 2024

There is no point in comparing a movie to anything it isn’t trying to be in the first place. Shark movies, therefore, generally shouldn’t be held up against, say, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, but rather JAWS.

THE LAST BREATH isn’t JAWS (not much is), but it’s decent enough. For novelty, it takes place mostly in and around the sunken wreck of the WWII battleship, the USS Charlotte, in the waters off the British Virgin Islands. We see her hit by a German torpedo in the prologue. Then we see some Great White sharks pick off surviving crewmen in the water.

Eighty years later, we see a small craft captained by Levi (the late Julian Sands), who has a collection of logbooks indicating that he’s been searching for the Charlotte for at least thirty years.

Levi’s good-natured, younger first mate Noah (Jack Parr) obliges the captain by searching for traces of the ship. A recent storm has shifted the sea floor, and lo and behold, what does Noah find?

By coincidence, a group of Noah’s friends from college all arrive for a three-day visit on the island. The group consists of Noah’s ex-girlfriend, doctor Sam (Kim Spearman) and her brother, competitive Wall Street whiz Brett (Alexander Arnold), plus disorganized Logan (Arlo Carter) and agreeable Riley (Erin Mullen).

Although it’s against Noah’s better judgment for safety reasons (which have nothing to do with sharks), he agrees to take the whole group on a dive to the Charlotte when Brett offers enough money to erase Levi’s debts.

Complications ensue.

On the plus side, nobody does anything too idiotic (well, Arlo does some stupid things, but they aren’t lethal), there are credible concerns about oxygen levels, the action is reasonable in context, and some of the water scenes are in the open ocean, with actual fish.

Also, there are multiple sharks, which means there isn’t one shark unnaturally attacking multiple people in a short span of time.

And then there is Sands, giving a fine performance in his final role, as a cranky but wistful old salt.

On the minus side, while director Joachim Hedér turns the battleship into a suitably baffling underwater maze, the screenplay by Nick Saltrese, from a story by Alexander Prendergast and Saltrese, doesn’t have nearly as much fun with the setting and its props as it might.

For that matter, given the amount of time we spend with them, the characters are a bit under-developed, though the cast is personable and invested in what they’re doing.

Additionally, while the sharks’ movements look right, the close-ups are jarring (the eyes are all wrong). Also, since the dialogue specifies that no one has noticed shark activity in this area for decades (which makes it easier to believe that this isn’t at the top of anyone’s list of worries), some explanation of what they’re doing here now would be nice.

Still, for aficionados of big toothy fish movies, THE LAST BREATH delivers on the essentials and holds up well enough in most of the other departments.

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