Film Review: Last Breath

Welcome back to the blog readers. Sometimes there is nothing better than watching a thriller film to see what twists and turns get revealed next. Then there are the survival thrillers that mess with your psyche and leave you questioning everything you have ever known. Then, there are the survival thrillers that are based on real events that make you even ponder your very existence. With this film, would we be able to strike that chord between the psyche and the reality? Stick around to find out.

Last Breath was directed by Alex Parkinson from a screenplay by Parkinson, Mitchell LaFortune, and David Brooks, based on the 2019 documentary Last Breath by Parkinson and Richard da Costa. The film stars Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu, Finn Cole, and Cliff Curtis. In the film, a group of deep-sea divers race to rescue one of their stranded teammates after an accident puts the entire mission in jeopardy.

I have to admit this film was never really all that high on my radar, but the reviews started coming in and I found myself somewhat looking forward to this film. And then my family saw it and gave a glowing review, meaning this should be a film I check out. And boy am I glad I did because I very much had a good time with this film. I think all the performances are great (especially from Simu Liu), and I very much enjoyed the music and the tension the director is able to maintain throughout.

I want to start by talking about the performance of Simu Liu, who plays diver David Yuasa. Liu is someone who before 2019 was a total stranger to me (2019 was the year he was announced to be playing Shang-Chi), and he totally won me over with his performance in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021). He has since been in films like Barbie (2023), Arthur the King, Atlas, and Jackpot! (all 2024) (three films I did not see), but I feel as if this could really be the role in which people start taking him seriously. As the straight man, he comes off as a bit prickly, but as the film goes on, he shows me he is more than his role as a Ken and that he definitely has the range to nail a role like this. Even though Finn Cole was the emotional heart of the film, I found myself really gravitating towards the performance of this "good Canadian kid."

I next want to mention the tone of this film because I definitely think the filmmakers being able to keep the tone the same for this film was not easy to do, but they absolutely nailed it. I mean, the film is listed as a thriller after all. I bring this up because good thriller films are not adequately able to capture that dark, gritty tone for the entire runtime of the film, but Parkinson and company were able to expertly dance around some lighthearted moments but overall deliver some good dark tonal underlays throughout. I really appreciate that they were able to do that and hope that Parkinson is able to direct a few more of these in the future.

And finally, I want to talk about the music of this film. This score was composed by Paul Leonard-Morgan, who has done things such as Dredd (2012), as a co-composer for the game Cyberpunk 2077 (2020), and the documentary version of Last Breath. His score for this film feels orchestral in style, bombastic where it needs to be, and is able to adapt itself perfectly to be able to fit into the dark and chilling tone of the film. This is not a score I would nominate for Best Original Score anytime soon, but I found it to be a very good one nonetheless.

In conclusion, Last Breath is a genuinely thrilling film that features a career-best performance from Simu Liu and some gripping moments that leave you hanging on to the edge of your seat. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.