Last Orders

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Like finding that perfect stage of moderate drunkenness in which the senses are sharpened rather than dulled, and time passes with leisurely grace.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

It's like Chekhov with a British accent.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

Unassuming masterpiece about life, love and the cruel joke of old age.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A movie I loved on first sight and, even more important, love in remembrance. Taken all in all, there's only one last thing to say about it. Go.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

A funny and touching film that is gorgeously acted by a British cast to rival Gosford Park's.

Slate David Edelstein

Shows the dying tremors of a generation, and you might feel as if you can see every molecule, every atom give up the ghost.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

The lifelong friends in Fred Schepisi's marvelous Last Orders actually seem like lifelong friends.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

The movie's pace is unhurried by Hollywood standards, but it's all the richer in character detail.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Gathering its forces slowly, this careful, thoughtful film, quietly but deeply moving, is dramatic without seeming to be.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Sad and lovely.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Superbly adapted by Fred Schepisi from the Booker Prize-winning novel by Graham Swift, Last Orders pays quietly passionate tribute to the unsung working-class generation that fought World War II and survived to take up apparently humdrum lives.

Variety David Stratton

Delicately handled and superbly textured, this fine adaptation of Graham Swift's Booker Prize-winning novel deals with all the really big subjects: love, friendship, death, life.

New Times (L.A.) Luke Y. Thompson

The film's biggest strength is the same characteristic that may cause people to underrate it: that the group of friends we watch onscreen feel not like England's greatest actors showing off, but rather a group of friends who have indeed known each other for years through life's little triumphs and large tragedies.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Too many films about the dead involve mourning, and too few involve laughter. Yet at lucky funerals there is a desire to remember the good times.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Richly textured, beautifully acted.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

A superb film that begins with death, ends in renewal, and finds almost as much to laugh about as to cry for.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Given the number of characters involved and the fact that the film flashes back and forth over a 40-year period, the film flows beautifully, thanks in large part to excellent casting and Kate Williams's fluid editing.

Time Richard Schickel

Wry humor and even a certain sexiness break through the reserve of a rueful, realistic, but finally emotionally rewarding film.

Chicago Reader Staff (Not Credited)

I was hooked from the start.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The stars ultimately carry the day, the film cumulatively builds both an emotional power and tender wisdom that's very affecting.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

It is remarkably, unsentimentally dramatized by Fred Schepisi, courtesy of the pitch-perfect performances of its ensemble British cast.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

It's a warm, skillful excavation of what look like ordinary lives, ones that aren't so simple once you dig a little deeper.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

If truth be told, the film is less than the sum of its parts; the main problem is the fragmented narrative structure, a legacy of the literary source. Still, it's a joy to see men and women with dense life stories played by powerful actors with long and distinguished careers.

Film Threat Michael Dequina

A friend called Fred Schepisi's ensemble drama "a crusty old white man's 'Joy Luck Club'" -- an assessment that isn't without some kernel of truth.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The storytelling may be ordinary, but the cast is one of those all-star reunions.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

The actors do their best, particularly the impeccable Mirren, but Schepisi draws a shroud of chaste dullness over their scenes and lays on an energy- sapping score.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Good performances by a distinguished cast don't quite overcome the weaknesses of the disappointing screenplay.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A ho-hum male weepie/road comedy that's worth watching mostly because of a once-in-a-lifetime gathering of England's greatest working-class actors.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

Never quite shrugs off its literary manners. [18 & 25 Feb 2002, p. 200]

Austin Chronicle Steve Davis

The temporal jumps between the present and varying points in the past deprive the film of a sense of completeness; the transitions from scene to scene are largely disorienting, leaving you struggling to find your bearings.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

The carload of codgers in Fred Schepisi's Last Orders merely bellyache, philosophize, crack unfunny jokes, and ruminate simplemindedly about Death.