Screenwriter Jeff
Nathanson has slowly but surely been building a career in adapting improbable
but true stories into big screen comedies, although their resemblance to
true-life events are about as tenuous as they get. His last two scripts
were shot by the great Steven Spielberg, Catch Me if You Can and
The
Terminal, which weren't exactly the best examples of solid narratives, but
they did manage to be light, whimsical charmers, thanks to that Spielberg
touch. With The Last Shot, Nathanson finally gets his turn to try
his hand at directing, and while the idea for a film is rife with comedic
possibilities, he is no Spielberg. Despite a game cast of good actors
and potentially humorous situations, Nathanson does everything right except
for one thing -- he forgot the laughs.
Alec Baldwin (Along
Came Polly, The Cooler) stars as FBI
Agent Joe Devine, who has concocted what he feels is a surefire plan to take
down notorios crime kingpin John Gotti once and for all. He takes on an
undercover role as Joe Wells, Hollywood producer, and baits a struggling
director named Steven Schats (Broderick, Election)
to agree to make a movie out of his maudlin
script, based on a cancer-stricken woman's trek through the deserts of Arizona
in search of her identity. However, in order to score the big fish, Joe
has to convince Steven to film his Arizona pic in Providence, Rhode Island, in
the heart of the mob action, and Steven is so desperate for his big chance, he
willingly accepts such a preposterous notion. The movie was never
intended to be made, merely a ruse to get the gangsters to commit to an
illegal deal, but as the movie comes together, it becomes hard for the players
involved to know whether they are going to go ahead and make the movie for
real.
Perhaps the only thing
that would make The Last Shot truly something humorous would be the
presumption of truth in the story, which we are supposed to have, since the
opening credits let us know it is based on a true story. However, once
you actually get into the story, it doesn't take someone altogether savvy to
figure out that if this is a based on truth, that truth has been highly
embellished to the point that it might as well have been a work of fiction.
Perhaps a documentary on the making of the bogus FBI movie would have made a
better feature film than the Hollywood treatment given here.
While Nathanson does
manage to pull together a cast of character actors that perform well in their
respective roles, what he doesn't really give them are funny things for them
to say or do. Line after line of dialogue rolls by and almost nothing
strikes the funny bone, and in between the attempts at wit come some very
tired gags, like Steven's girlfriend, played by Callista Flockhart ("Ally
McBeal"), taking a
Pomeranian hostage for barking too much. Cameo appearances abound, but
almost none of them as funny as they would seem on paper. Toni Collette
(The Hours, About a Boy) seems like she could steal some scenes with an over-the-top performance as a
vain starlet, but even her character has nothing much to do but primp and act pouty.
The Last Shot is
full of jokes so inside, perhaps only Nathanson sees the humor value in them.
Meanwhile, all we can do is sit and watch good actors valiantly trying to
inject life in a boring script. There are a few nice touches, just not
enough, making The Last Shot a forgettable misfire that isn't even as
interesting as the bad, bogus movie that they attempt to create in the film
within the film.
©2005 Vince Leo
