Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.5

Prime Suspect 7: The Final Act Blu-ray Movie Review

At Loose Ends

Reviewed by Michael Reuben August 23, 2013

(Spoiler alert: The following assumes that the reader is familiar with all previous series of Prime Suspect. If you haven't seen all previous series, proceed at your own risk. A spoiler-free overview of the Complete Collection can be found here.)

First Broadcast: October 15, 22, 2006, (U.K.); November 12, 19, 2006 (U.S.)

If the first series of Prime Suspect was infused by the exhilaration of Jane Tennison's first major case, the last, unambiguously titled The Final Act, is imbued with the weariness caused by a long career of heavy responsibility. It is also about the conflict of emotions as Tennison looks back, takes stock and prepares to lay aside the burden of law enforcement. Old age, as Bette Davis famously said, isn't for sissies. When you're Jane Tennison, neither is retirement.

Two unique elements distinguish The Final Act. The first is that, for once, no one is trying to push Tennison aside or get her out of the way. No one needs to do so, because she's just a few weeks shy of retirement. Indeed, the case at the center of The Final Act will be her last. The second element is the amount of time devoted to Tennison's personal life. There are no more love interests, old or new, but family matters are a major concern, and, as Tennison stares at the yawning gap of empty time before her, she leaps back and forth between introspection and sheer, unadulterated terror.

The Final Act was one of the last projects written by Irish screenwriter Frank Deasy (Prozac Nation) before his untimely death at age 50. The director was Philip Martin (Murder on the Orient Express).

Tennison has been drinking heavily, and she awakens one morning with no memory of having taken a call the previous evening from Sergeant Cox (Russell Mabey) about a missing fourteen-year-old girl named Sallie Sturdy (Maxine Burton). Sallie's parents, Tony and Ruth (Gary Lewis and Katy Murphy), are searching for her frantically, calling everyone they know, including their neighbors, Sean and Linda Philips (Stephen Tompkinson and Nurse Jackie's Eve Best). Sean is the headmaster of Sallie's school, where Sallie was a star of the girls' basketball team. The Philips' daughter, Penny (Laura Greenwood), also fourteen, is Sallie's best friend. Penny last saw Sallie heading toward a heath in the nearby wood the previous afternoon.

After anxious hours of searching and interviewing, Sallie's body is discovered in the wild, and the grim task of forensic analysis begins. The results only raise more questions, but the prime suspect is a fellow student, Curtis Flynn (Heshima Thompson), who fancies himself a ladies' man and a rebel. As if to confirm his guilt, Curtis runs when the police come looking for him and disappears into hiding.

Tennison directs the investigation in her usual manner, but one can sense that she is struggling to keep up. Her staff is obviously aware of her drinking problems, and they either look the other way or try to protect her. Especially concerned is Sergeant Alun Summs (Robert Pugh), a loyal friend on the force who has remained with Tennison since The Last Witness. Tennison's current boss, DCS Mitchell (Brendan Coyle, Downton Abbey) wants her to take leave for the remainder of her time and enter rehab, but Tennison insists on staying to finish the Sallie Sturdy case. She says she has a "real feel" for it.

Does she really? Or is Tennison simply postponing the inevitable? She's certainly become attached to young Penny Philips, who just lost her best friend and is obviously unhappy at home. Still, after a long career dealing with lives touched by tragedy, Tennison should know better than to become emotionally involved with a key witness. But she can't help being reminded by Penny of the infinite possibilities youth has before it. It's a sensation Tennison herself hasn't felt for a long time.

Loss is very much on Tennison's mind. Her father (Frank Finlay) has gone into hospital with terminal cancer, and his final conversations with Jane are both candid and emotional. Arnold Tennison's greatest regret for his accomplished daughter is how she's held herself apart from others, especially her sister Pauline (Carolyn Pickles) and her sister's two daughters. First on her own, then later with Penny, Tennison revisits her father's house (which the family has never sold) and rummages through memorabilia of her youth. The experience churns up the kind of emotional turmoil that leads her straight back to the bottle.

Even the Alcoholics Anonymous meetings that Tennison attends to satisfy DCS Mitchell are no escape from the past. At one of them, Tennison is stunned to encounter her old nemesis, Sergeant Bill Otley (Tom Bell), now retired and a veteran of AA, who is delighted to see Tennison, though the feeling isn't mutual at first. With great reluctance, Tennison accepts Otley's invitation for coffee so that the grizzled old sergeant can perform the time-honored AA ritual of "making amends". The former combatants reconcile, but their adventures aren't yet over.

True to her nature until the end, it is Tennison who spots the evidentiary detail that ultimately establishes the identity of Sallie Sturdy's killer. "I couldn't see it", she sighs to DI Traynor (Robbie Gee), as she regrets not solving the case sooner. But nobody else did either. One of the essential functions of Tennison's last case is to remind her how often villainy and evil lurk invisibly cloaked by a mantle of innocence, respectability and ordinary routine. Tennison has spent her entire adult life combating such evil, but there's always more. As she leaves her office for the last time at the end of The Final Act, one can almost detect a spring in Tennison's step and the vague beginning of a smile on her face. She may be thinking, "I've done my bit; it's their problem now." But who knows for sure?

Helen Mirren's performance in The Final Act ranks among her finest dramatic achievements. Look closely at any scene, and you can see her playing multiple thoughts and emotions, some expressed to the other characters, some kept private to herself (and the audience). It's an eloquent farewell for one of the most challenging and complex characters in modern dramatic fiction.

Prime Suspect 7: The Final Act Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Final Act has been transferred to Blu-ray in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1. Please see the Video section of the Complete Collection review for an overview of Prime Suspect's video presentation. The extra screencaps with this review include sample comparisons between the Blu-ray and Acorn Media's DVD release of Series 7. The 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray opens with the disclaimer quoted in the Complete Collection review.

Julian Court (Ripper Street and Luther) photographed The Final Act, which was shot on Super16, presumably for consistency with previous series of Prime Suspect. As with Series 6, The Last Witness, the Blu-ray image for The Last Act offers a noticeable improvement over the first five series of Prime Suspect and, indeed, improves upon Series 6. Within the limitations of 16mm, the image is sharp, detailed and well-defined, with none of the blurry or grainy shots that are a regular feature in the first five series and the occasionally softer shots of Series 6. Colors are natural and properly saturated, black levels and contrast look appropriate, and the grain pattern appears natural and film-like. At 192 minutes, The Final Act is the shortest series of Prime Suspect, but this is also the disc with the most extras. Still, compression artifacts were not a factor.

Prime Suspect 7: The Final Act Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

For The Final Act, the producers of Prime Suspect recruited composer Nicholas Hooper, who would shortly go on to score the Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince chapters in the Harry Potter franchise. Hooper's score is more traditionally dramatic and extensively used than in any prior series of Prime Suspect, and it's a fitting accompaniment for The Final Act's emotional depth. The Blu-ray's DTS-HD MA 2.0 track reproduces the orchestral performance with good fidelity and a wide (for television) dynamic range. The dialogue is clearly rendered, even when muttered (some of Bill Otley's statements are barely whispered), but American ears may need the assistance of subtitles when dealing with the rapid, accented speech of younger characters such as Curtis Flynn. As with most British TV, sound effects are functional, and the action is front-oriented, but there is a general sense of environmental ambiance when the stereo track is processed through a surround decoder.

Prime Suspect 7: The Final Act Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Prime Suspect: Behind the Scenes (1080i; 1.78:1; 46:00): This series retrospective was made to be released in conjunction with The Final Act. It contains clips, and interviews with participants, from both Series 7 and previous series (and, as a result, contains spoilers for anyone new to Prime Suspect). Probably the most interesting and important participant, other than Mirren herself, is Jackie Malton, the former DCI whose experiences provided the raw material for the character of Jane Tennison and who, as Mirren explains, provided valuable insight into a female DCI's behavior. Notably missing in action is series creator Lynda La Plante.



• Photo Gallery (1080p; various; 3:33): This set of production stills is from The Final Act.



• Introductory Trailer: At startup the disc plays a trailer for Single-Handed, which can be skipped with the chapter forward button.

Prime Suspect 7: The Final Act Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Jane Tennison leaves the Metropolitan Police with her head defiantly unbowed, never taking the easy path, always having done what's right (as her father says). Her current boss refers to her as "old school" police, and there aren't many women of whom that can be said. As Tennison strides off the screen, what does her future hold? Will she drink herself to death, as DCS Mitchell predicts? Will she reconcile with her sister and nieces and finally develop a family connection? Or is there some yet undiscovered new chapter in life for Tennison? (A vague reference to Florida is dropped at one point.) Viewers are free to speculate. Whatever happens next, Tennison has left her mark. "I won't miss Jane in the short term", Helen Mirren said when she completed The Final Act, "but probably, as more time passes, I will." Highest recommendation.