Getting stranded deep underwater is a fear for many. Surrounded by water in the pitch black, oxygen supply dwindling, little hope of rescue. The based-on-a-true-story drama Last Breath is about a diver who was caught in that exact situation when his umbilical snapped, leaving him to try to get to a place where he could be found and pray that the crew could get to him before it was too late. There is a lot of inherent tension in this story, yet the workmanlike filmmaking only captures it intermittently. It is fine, with some solid emotion from a quality cast, but it never grabbed me, never made what the characters were going through feel genuine. There’s a routine to the proceedings here. Big moments come off as perfunctory. There is no true sense of isolation or loneliness. While the story itself is incredible, as presented here, it just isn’t very interesting.
Duncan, Chris and Dave are a team assigned to repair a cable at the bottom of the ocean. When Chris’ cable snaps during a dive, he’s left alone with little air, while everyone on board the boat tries to figure out how they can possibly bring him back alive.
Last Breath (88 minutes, not including the end credits) establishes its setting and danger fairly effectively at the outset. These are professionals and adventurers. They know precisely what they are getting themselves into and are hungry for it. Odds are, things will go okay. However, if anything goes wrong, you’re likely talking about recovery, not rescue. They enter into these risks with their eyes wide open.
These are the stakes as we are introduced to the usual collection of macho guys with good hearts, who make jokes to hide their anxiety. Woody Harrelson is in the Woody Harrelson role as Duncan, the wisecracking longtime veteran on his last job. He stays out of the water and handles the machinery, acting as the group’s father figure. Simu Liu is Dave, pragmatic, straightforward, all business, more caring than he lets on. Finn Cole is the comparatively inexperienced Chris, the nice, quiet guy with a loving fiancé at home. Though he is the one we are supposed to be the most invested in, he is by far the least engaging of the three.
Despite being adapted from a documentary, the screenplay hits every cliché you would expect, on the way to every predictable plot point. That makes it difficult to generate real drama. Director/cowriter Alex Parkinson, who has remade his own 2019 movie here, struggles to turn it into something as riveting as it seems like it should be. These aren’t people; they are pawns plugged into a situation designed to manipulate the audience’s emotions.
Some of the underwater cinematography is good, the cast (especially Harrelson and Liu) are good and there are a couple of successful moments of suspense. Still, it feels like it should be more intimate in following Chris trying to stay alive and his teammates’ fear and helplessness. Instead, there are too many characters and too much plot. A story about the desperate attempt to save a man from what seems to be certain death doesn’t need to be cluttered. This is. Last Breath just doesn’t have the focus or intensity it needed to make an impact.
2¾ out of 5
Cast:
Woody Harrelson as Duncan Allock
Simu Liu as Dave Yuasa
Finn Cole as Chris Lemons
Cliff Curtis as Andre Jenson
Mark Bonnar as Craig
Bobby Rainsbury as Morag
Directed by Alex Parkinson
Written by Mitchell LaFortune, Alex Parkinson and David Brooks
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