4.8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 1.5 | |
Overall | 1.5 |
A director of an international aid agency in Africa meets a relief aid doctor amidst a political/social revolution, and together face tough choices surrounding humanitarianism and life through civil unrest.
Starring: Charlize Theron, Javier Bardem, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Jared Harris, Jean RenoDrama | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
UV digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 1.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 1.5 |
It’s probably unfair to judge a person based on impressions they’ve given you in their (very) public life, but, hey, (Biblical proscriptions aside) judging is what I do for a living, so here goes. He may be a very nice man in person, but for whatever reason Sean Penn has always struck me as a bit self absorbed and haughty, unable to laugh at himself or his foibles. Penn has certainly done inarguably fine work as an actor and even as a director, and some of his altruistic impulses, as when he helped in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, are above reproach. Those chits in the “good boy” column are balanced against some of Penn’s more questionable antics, including cuddling up to various dictators and of course flexing his journalistic (?) muscles when he interviewed El Chapo. The Last Face, Penn’s latest directorial effort, may well have begun with good intentions fully intact, but it’s one of those overly labored, ultra serious affairs that comes off as, well, self absorbed and haughty, as well as somewhat pretentious. Charlize Theron portrays Wren Petersen, a physician working for the real life organization Doctors of the World, ostensibly attempting to help a region devastated by war and poverty. When she meets another doctor named Miguel Leon (Javier Bardem), romantic sparks at least intermittently fly, with the film’s screenplay (by Erin Dignam) waffling as to whether it wants to be a social activism screed or a star-crossed lovers in purgatory affair. The result is a pretty uneven mishmash, one that not even the star power of Theron and Bardem can successfully rescue.
The Last Face is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. Technical data on the shoot is sparse, though one site credits a generic "HD", meaning digital capture, and the look of Barry Ackroyd's cinematography has the sleek, sharp and generally extremely well detailed look of that technology. The film seems to associate "shaky cam" with verité "truthfulness", and so clarity is at least variable from time to time simply because the camera is darting to and fro. The impressive location work offers some vast vistas (sometimes with disturbing elements like huge refugee encampments), many of which feature substantial depth of field. Penn goes for the Art House crowd with several dewy framings of his charismatic stars, and occasionally fine detail levels suffer due to overly stylized lighting and even some momentary focus pulling challenges. Penn and Ackroyd also indulge in some fairly unusual grading and/or lighting choices that suffuse scenes with deep cobalt hues, though detail levels rarely if ever falter.
Perhaps unexpectedly, given the political subtext simmering underneath The Last Face's love story, the film has a rather large amount of pop and rock source cues, something that, along with Hans Zimmer's somewhat portentous score, offer good surround activity on the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. A lot of the film takes place outside, where well placed ambient environmental sounds offer a lifelike recreation of "instant urban" environments created by the refugees. There are a number of good panning effects in scenes involving helicopters or other fast moving items. Dialogue (such as it is) is offered very cleanly and with excellent prioritization on this problem free track.
Sean Penn may have done better to simply forget the whole star-crossed lovers angle and simply have made a documentary on this war torn region, for some of the most visceral content here is the weirdly "tangential" (to the main story) sight of beautiful little kids getting blown to smithereens. Theron and Bardem do what they can with substandard material, but the writing is often ineffective and Penn's overly arty approach to this gritty subject matter doesn't help much in the long run. Technical merits are strong for those considering a purchase.
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