Movie Review: LAST BREATH

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: February 28th, 2025 / 12:20 PM

LAST BREATH movie poster | ©2025 Focus Features

Rating: PG-13
Stars: Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu, Finn Cole, Cliff Curtis, Mark Bonnar, MyAnna Buring, Josef Altin, Bobby Rainsbury
Writers: Mitchell LaFortune and Alex Parkinson & David Brooks, based on the documentary LAST BREATH by Metfilm
Director: Alex Parkinson
Distributor: Focus Features
Release Date: February 28, 2025

LAST BREATH (not to be confused with 2024’s THE LAST BREATH) is based on the 2019 documentary of the same name. The new drama’s director, Alex Parkinson, co-directed the documentary with Richard da Costa, and co-wrote the narrative feature’s screenplay with Mitchell LaFortune and David Brooks.

The set-up is plenty tense. A trio of divers is sent down to the floor of the North Sea off the Scottish coast. Duncan Allcock (Woody Harrelson) is the senior member of the team, having been on the job for thirty years. Duncan has worked with much younger Chris Lemons (Finn Cole) before, but this is the first time Chris has met fellow diver Dave Yuasa (Simu Liu).

There are two other teams working off the same ship, but we see little of them. The task at hand is to do repairs on the underwater cables that provide fuel to heat people’s homes.

The cord attaching Chris to the ship snaps, leaving him stranded with almost no air at the sea bottom. This touches off a frantic rescue effort headed by Duncan, Dave, ship’s captain Andre Jenson (Cliff Curtis) and dive captain Craig (Mark Bonnar).

Even viewers who have seen a lot of this type of subject matter over the years are likely to get caught up in the action, which plays almost in real time. We find ourselves leaning forward to see if a winch will operate, or a panel can be rewired. Exposition comes naturally, as people who must collaborate fill each other in on unfamiliar activities.

While there are a few personal touches – Chris’s happy relationship with fiancée Morag (Bobby Rainsbury), Duncan’s dismay over being let go by the company – the script for LAST BREATH for the most part shies away from melodrama. There are no screaming disagreements about tactics, no simmering rivalries that blow up and have to be mended, just the ever-increasing pressure of the clock and the wild waves.

The performances are commendably restrained. All the actors exude the quiet professionalism that their characters possess, which cracks but mustn’t break in the circumstances.

As a director, Parkinson not only keeps ratcheting up the adrenaline, he also conveys the vastness and loneliness of the dark depths of the ocean. Being a repair diver is almost as dangerous as being an astronaut, but without the publicity and perks.

Nobody creating fiction would dare invent the climax of LAST BREATH. It would be unbelievable if it hadn’t happened in reality. As it is, there’s an onscreen explanation that acknowledges no one is positive exactly how it occurred.

LAST BREATH makes us feel like we’re experiencing its events along with the people it depicts. By the time it ends, viewers may need some decompression of their own to relax.

Follow us on Twitter at ASSIGNMENT X
Like us on Facebook at ASSIGNMENT X

Latest Buzz

Movie Review: LAST BREATH

Tense fact-based undersea crisis drama

Article Source: Assignment X
Article: Movie Review: LAST BREATH

Related

Related Posts:

Leave a Comment

Assignment X Poll

Newsletter subscription status

Latest Buzz

Movie Review: LAST BREATH

Tense fact-based undersea crisis drama

Article Source: Assignment X Article: Movie Review: LAST BREATH

Related

Related Posts:

Leave a Comment

Assignment X Poll

Article Source: Assignment X
Article: Movie Review: LAST BREATH