LAST LOOKS

LAST LOOKS is a hardboiled mystery thriller in limited release about an off-the-grid, former police detective who’s enticed by a former girlfriend to help an expatriate British actor who stars in a popular American TV series and is accused of murdering his wife. Starring Mel Gibson as the accused killer, LAST LOOKS is one of the most captivating, enjoyable, well-acted detective stories filmed in recent years, but it’s marred by a heavy amount of strong foul language, which spoils the story’s positive moral content and lively, amusing plot and characters.

The movie opens with Charlie Waldo’s former girlfriend, Lorena, invading Waldo’s home space in the mountains outside of Los Angeles. After leaving the police force in disgrace, Waldo has gone off the grid. He lives in a rundown trailer near the woods and tells Lorena he’s reduced all his possessions to only 100 things. She complains that he “ghosted” her (stopped contacting her), and Waldo replies, “I ghosted everybody.”

Lorena asks him to help her prove the innocence of a big-time, alcoholic TV actor, Alastair Pinch, who stars in a popular show about a Southern judge called JOHNNIE’S BENCH. Pinch, an expatriate from England, is accused of murdering his wife. Lorena says the TV studio will pay them lots of money for helping Pinch, who claims to have been in an alcoholic stupor.

That night, three thugs enter Waldo’s trailer and beat him up. They show him a news story from the TV studio saying that the studio is paying Waldo to help Pinch. Waldo, of course, denies this. The head thug orders Waldo not to help Pinch, then knock him unconscious.

The next morning, an LAPD detective shows up at Waldo’s place. He tells Waldo that Lorena gave him something for safe keeping, but Waldo has no idea what he’s talking about. The detective, known as Big Jim, tells Waldo that the thing was something that Lorena stole from her alleged employer, Don Q, a drug dealer. He also tells Waldo that Lorena’s disappeared.

Concerned about Lorena, Waldo rides his bicycle to the local bus station. With the bicycle attached to a bus bicycle rack, he takes the bus to the TV studio in Los Angeles. The studio head, a fast-talking phony named Wilson Sikorsky, introduces Waldo to Pinch. Waldo agrees to stick around for a day to consider taking the case and, hopefully, locate Lorena and protect her, if needed. Pinch, an irascible but somehow lovable alcoholic, invites Waldo to stay at his mansion, and Waldo agrees.

At Pinch’s house, Waldo discovers that Pinch and his late wife have a very cute young daughter named Gabby. Waldo immediately takes a liking to the little girl, who starts calling him a lion because of his scraggly beard. It’s also clear to him, and the viewer, that Gabby’s father adores his daughter. That’s clearly a point in Pinch’s favor in Waldo’s eyes.

Waldo looks at the scene of the crime, the living room in the Pinch mansion. He notices some differences between a picture on the wall and the room as it’s now laid out. The furniture seems to have been moved around, but Pinch says his wife liked to move things around a lot. Waldo is suspicious, however, because one of Pinch’s British acting awards seems to be missing.

As Waldo begins his investigation, Big Jim, the LAPD detective, tells Waldo that Lorena’s burned body has been found in her car. This tragic event spurs Waldo on to continue working to investigate the murder of Pinch’s wife. Everyone is a suspect, including the notorious drug dealer, Don Q, who claims he tortured Lorena, and she told him she gave the stolen item to Waldo.

Based on a novel and script by Howard Michael Gould, LAST LOOKS tells a captivating, lively, amusing modern detective story. It has many of the famous stylistic nuances, formulas and enjoyable stereotypes of what is often known as hardboiled detective fiction. For example, like Jim Rockford of the iconic ROCKFORD FILES television series, the detective lives on the outskirts of the big city, in a trailer. Instead of a beach in Santa Monica, Calif., however, the detective in LAST LOOKS lives near the woods, away from the big city, the city without walls known as Los Angeles. An extension of the western hero, the cynical hardboiled detective is in a liminal state, at the borders of society. That’s why, during his investigation, he can visit both rich and powerful people as well as poor and sleazy people, including professional criminals. In such stories, society has fallen into a state of corruption, not because society is inherently corrupt, but because people are inherently corrupt. So, the detective must travel through this maze of public and private corruption to uncover the truth and find some semblance of justice.

The characters in LAST LOOKS are all fun to watch. Charlie Hunnam does an excellent job portraying the detective. The rest of the cast is also excellent, including Mel Gibson, who delivers a fun and even moving performance as the irascible alcoholic actor who loves his little daughter.

Sadly, however, LAST LOOKS contains lots of strong foul language, including many gratuitous “f” words and some strong profanities. Otherwise, however, LAST LOOKS is free of graphic violence and explicit nudity and sex. The gratuitous foul language diminishes the movie’s positive moral content and lively, amusing plot and characters. MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution.