X
- 2017
- R
- Bleecker Street Media
- 1 h 48 m
- 2017
- R
- Bleecker Street Media
- 1 h 48 m
Summary A one-time highly successful business woman, Harriet Lawler (Shirley MacLaine) has micro-managed every single aspect of her life. Why would her obituary be any different? And so she assigns the task to a local writer, Anne Sherman (Amanda Seyfried). When the first draft doesn't meet her expectations, Harriet sets out to rewrite her life'...
Directed By: Mark Pellington
Written By: Stuart Ross Fink
- 2017
- R
- Bleecker Street Media
- 1 h 48 m
- 2017
- R
- Bleecker Street Media
- 1 h 48 m
The Last Word
40
7.5
Where to Watch
Summary A one-time highly successful business woman, Harriet Lawler (Shirley MacLaine) has micro-managed every single aspect of her life. Why would her obituary be any different? And so she assigns the task to a local writer, Anne Sherman (Amanda Seyfried). When the first draft doesn't meet her expectations, Harriet sets out to rewrite her life'...
Directed By: Mark Pellington
Written By: Stuart Ross Fink
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 23 Critic Reviews
40
0% Positive
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
83% Mixed
19 Reviews
19 Reviews
17% Negative
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 23 Critic Reviews
40
0% Positive
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
83% Mixed
19 Reviews
19 Reviews
17% Negative
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
If you must make another entirely predictable comedy about an unapologetic old white curmudgeon who steamrolls all opposition, you can't do better than draft the redoubtable Shirley MacLaine to keep audiences in her barbed corner while we wait for her inevitable bittersweet humanization.
Beat by beat, though, Lauler (played by the stellar Shirley MacLaine) “evolves” in Mark Pellington’s predictable dramedy The Last Word. Cinematic comfort food comes to mind, and rest assured, mom and grandma will probably have a nice time.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 13 User Ratings
7.5
69% Positive
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
31% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 13 User Ratings
7.5
69% Positive
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
31% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
“The Last Word” is a movie for people who love/like Shirley MacLaine and I am one who does. It is also a movie for people who enjoyed her role as Ouiser in “Steel Magnolias” in 1989 because as Harriet in this movie she is even more of a curmudgeon along with being a control freak who, in her 81 years, has ‘lost’ her daughter, (Anne Heche) husband (Philip Baker Hall) and whatever friends she might have had.
The screenplay by Stuart Ross Fink is how Harriet hires the obituary writer of the local newspaper, Anne (Amanda Seyfried), to write her obituary before she dies. She gives Anne a list of 100 names for her to go and see but comes back to Harriet to tell her that not a single one had anything nice to say about her. Harriet has not gained friends or respect by teaching her gardener how to garden, her housekeeper how to cook, her hairdresser to step aside so that she can do her own hair the way she wants it and she even ignores her gynecologist how to examine her.
From this point on there is nothing more to do except lean back and watch MacLaine, who has made over 65 movies starting with her first Hitchcock’s “The Trouble With Harry” in 1955, taking the movie exactly where you know it will go.
Along the way we meet a girl from the projects, Brenda, (Ann’Jewel Lee) who Harriet is going to mentor, Robin (Thomas Sadoski) who Harriet will get to hire her as a DJ on his radio station, who she will try to fix up with Anne—no, that is not a spoiler as you know what will happen there.
The director, Mark Pellington, lets Shirley MacLaine take Harriet wherever she has to go and it is to the audience’s delight that she can take a line, give a look, that will make you laugh or feel her pain or show why this actress at 81 is a fascinating study on how to be a movie actress and star. Oh yes, even in this spotlight you see the woman as she is, the lines, the spots, the ‘rippling’ neck, an old woman who doesn’t hide a day of her 81 years. (I can say that because we are the same age.)
“The Last Word” is 108 minutes, about 8 minutes too long, certainly isn’t a must see but it is a pleasure to watch.
Report
Despite the presence of Shirley MacLaine, the moments of pleasure provided by The Last Word are far outnumbered by scenes of exaggerated, phony, sugary marzipan-like make believe.
What initially augured a spiky portrait of late-age restlessness recedes into a woefully generic case of shopworn cross-generational uplift, sprinkled with tired wisecracks.
While MacLaine and Seyfried do the best with what they’ve got, The Last Word is pedestrian and predictable. It is harmless, though, too. You won’t believe a single minute of it, but you might, despite better judgement, find yourself caring by the end.
Ms. MacLaine, 82, holds the screen effortlessly. Too bad she has to share it.
Director Mark Pellington (“I Melt With You”) at least recognizes that the setup is little more than a freakish showcase for MacLaine do her blunt-spoken-battle-ax thing.
I enjoyed this movie, and five other people who saw it with me also enjoyed it, despite the critics. It is always a pleasure to see Shirley MacLaine, and her character, obnoxious at the beginning, never seems irredemable. Anne Heche, who plays her estranged daughter, does a good job of portraying a woman obviously influenced by her mother. Yes, it is somewhat predictable, but the plot is well structured, there are lots of good one liners and the moral, that you're never too old to change your life, is a good one
Report
It seems like the only characters that actors over 70 can play are crusty grumps. Shirley MacLaine is the latest on the bandwagon, as a retired businesswoman with control issues. She's so concerned about her obit, that she assigns a young writer (Amanda Seyfried) to make it meaningful. Usually, this kind of film thrives on quirky, but this one flails with mediocre eccentricity (she becomes a radio DJ and mentors a sassy young black girl). MacLaine is great as the curmudgeon, but it's the young AnnJewel Lee Dixon whose personality steals the movie. Even so, they can't rescue every predictable beat of the story or the lack of emotional depth to add much real warmth to her obit.
Report
Production Company
Black Bear,
Myriad Pictures,
Parkside Pictures,
Wondros
Release Date Mar 3, 2017
Duration 1 h 48 m
Rating R
Tagline An unexpected friendship that begins at the end
