Christopher Reid
I must admit that I might not have watched The Last Sign had I not been aware of its presence on the IMDb bottom 100, which I've found to be a reliable list of unintentionally hilarious movies. While The Last Sign certainly met my "high" expectations, it was not nearly as funny as I'd hoped it would be. In fact, I felt only a few of the scenes were laughably bad; most were either dull, mediocre, or confusingly pointless.So, what about The Last Sign makes it so bad? Well, I thought just about everything about it was bad. The strongest aspect was perhaps the idea of the story which was itself not particularly original. Some of the shots (including the opening credits) were slightly creative but they still had this amateurish feel to them, as if Douglas Law (the director) has little cinematic taste or sense or was simply working well outside of his comfort zone. Outside of these minor "strengths", I thought the script was weak and lacking in purpose, the acting mediocre (Andie MacDowell delivered a vacuous performance while Simon Le Bihan was okay except that he was dubbed (*!?!?!*) and his scenes kind of stunk), the music was intrusive, cheap sounding and forgettable, the editing and cinematography were amateurish and overall the whole thing just lacked energy and originality.I honestly can't tell whether the filmmakers were really trying to make a good film and were let down by their lack of talent and experience or if they were just lazily plodding through weak material. Either way the result was pretty crap. If you want to see a good supernatural thriller then watch The Sixth Sense (again). Or perhaps El Maquinista (The Machinist).
amw-9
If it's possible to spoil such a poorly-conceptualized and constructed film, then look out for SPOILERS.First of all, the premise is good, but wait. . . is it really a premise? We read in the plot summary that Jeremy (Tim Roth) had been an "abusive alcoholic" husband. This would give Jeremy's widow, Kathy (as well as the audience) a reason to be frightened by the prospect of his from the dead. But as it turns out, there is no real reason to be afraid of him. (I mean, more than you would be afraid of any ghost of a loved one).The only evidence of what Jeremy was like given to us by the film indicates that he was altruistic, a good father, and a romantic husband. A gentle spirit, a doctor who started drinking because he can't make a dent in all the death and suffering in the world. We see ONE soundless tantrum where he is taking out his anger on the furniture in his own office. Kathy is standing by, looking not in the least threatened, but indeed, extremely sympathetic. In other flashbacks (which are little more than sound bites), he appears sober enough when she tells him that her and the kids are leaving, but by the time they drive off, yes, he has gotten drunk enough to throw a rock, which breaks the car window. The guy was losing everything that was left to him after the loss of his ideals- any normal person might get drunk on that occasion. If you're not confused yet, late in the film Kathy remarks that Jeremy was killed at exactly 12:15 am, the same day they had left him. Well, it was dark out when they left him, but in the wrecked car "scene" (which is repeated several times in the movie) it is definitely daytime. Perhaps the accident scene was not discovered for many hours, but then how would anyone know he'd died at precisely 12:15?This movie was filmed in Montreal, Quebec. Had the film located itself, we would know that the only possible significance of Kathy's sister mentioning that her new tenant, Marc, was "French," was to indicate he was a Francophone Quebequois; in other words, somebody with a very distinct accent. Did somebody fire the sound editor and forget to replace him? Or was it the actor originally cast to do the English dubbing for Samuel Le Behain who was fired (after which the sound editor himself was forced to fill in at the last minute? Whichever, the stiff, stilted voice of Marc did nothing to improve the credulityof romance sparking between himself and Kathy.Everyone (from Kathy's teen-aged son, to her sister Isabelle, to "Endora" at work) keeps pressing Kathy to move on with her life. Kathy repels Marcs's initial flirtation (having a memory of Jeremy pop up at just that moment). She has just barely gotten used to the idea that he's interacting well with her kids, when he suggests not taking his next job assignment so he can stick around and "settle down." When she doesn't jump into his arms, its his turn to tell her she needs to "let go" of Jeremy. Preposteropusly, the very next time these two are in a scene together is in the climax, when she has rushed to the airport to stop him from going to his next job. I don't think they've even kissed before. If this passes for romance, Kathy should have stuck to her sweet memories of Jeremy.Don't even get me started on the Eudora character, played by Margot Kidder. As a character, Endora was the creepiest part of this movie, the way she kept coming on to Kathy. She doesn't even know Kathy, yet she keeps butting in, telling Kathy how she feels about her late husband. Perhaps the initial concept was for Endora to symbolize the wise witch or "hag" myth. That's would have been great, but instead they've made her dialog one cliché' after another: "I'm guessing you're either a Leo or a Cancer," because she ate the TUNA MELT?!?! Everybody knows Cancer and Leo are extremely different from one another. (If it was between the two, she really must have snooped in the personnel files, because Cancer and Leo fall next to each other in the calendar.) I felt sorry for Ms. Kidder, having to say all those incredibly stupid lines while trying to play wise woman. And I really hope those ill-fitting false teeth were props, and not her everyday teeth. Director Douglas Law might have made at least a TV-quality movie, if he had abandoned the undeveloped character of Marc, dropped the vilification of Jeremy's memory, and made this movie about the way we never really lose the ones we love. But then it couldn't have been marketed as a thriller, and they wouldn't have been able to afford the lead actors' salaries.The only good things about this movie was the beautiful location and aerial photography, and the effective (if microsopic) presence of Tim Roth.
bobak
The storyline of this film is a great idea. Tim Roth is a great actor. Unfortunately, thats about all that can be said for it. A blend of some of the worst acting I have ever seen with a script that makes Moulin Rouge look good makes this film laughable. Events seem to just 'occur'... nothing is particularly explained although not a great deal happens and the supposedly french man next door is one of THE worst actors with the worst lines I have witnessed. Maybe its not his fault, but either way I found myself laughing every time he spoke... bless him. There were parts of this film that did engross me, such as the appearance of her dead husband and a local farm boy. This all said - I did watch it to the end, so decide for yourselves.
sol1218
**SPOILERS** After Kathy McFarland's husband Jermey was killed, when he drunkenly ran his car into a telephone pole, her life and finances took a turn for the worse. Not that Jeremy was a perfect husband but he was the bread-winner of the family and the one who Kathy's three children, Maggie Fiona and especially Frank, needed at this very critical time in their lives.Going to work at Into a Chemical as a lab technician Kathy runs into Dora a very strange and interesting woman named Dora who seems to know a lot more about her life then she would want to talk to her about. Later Kathy rents out the cottage attached to her home to Mark, a French engineer who's working for a US firm. Soon Kathy starts to get these phone calls at precisely 12:15 A.M at night she also starts to see the number "8" everywhere she looks. She even sees "8" with a microscope looking at one-cell organisms forming at the bottom of a petri dish where she works at the lab; "8" was Jermeys favorite number. Talking with Dora at work and later at a party she gave in her homes Kathy is told that Jeremy is somehow trying to get in contact with her. At first Kathy doesn't at all believe Dora and thinks she's some kind of a kook. Later when she runs into Furgus O'Brian who's life Jermey saved from house fire at the Moon River Hotel. Furgus tells Kathy the same thing that Dora told her earlier before; Jeremy is trying to get in touch with her. Thing start to really get weird when Kathy, with the help of Mark, finds the number of who's been calling her every night at 12:15; It's from the "Moon River" hotel where Furgus works. Kathy also finds out from Jeremys death certificate that he died from his injuries in the car accident at exactly 12:15 A.M! Going to the "Moon River" hotel to confront Furgus about him harassing her Kathy finds out that he never worked there! Later going to the O'Brian home Kathy sees Furgus and after letting him have it about his annoying phone calls he seems undeterred and tells her that it was Jeremy who told him to call her!Jeremy reason for trying to get in touch with her is that he wan't her forgiveness for all the trouble he caused Kathy and the kids when he was alive. Seeing Mrs. O'Brian, Furgus' mother,later at the house Kathy is stunned to find out that her son Furgus has been dead for six months! Then who was Kathy talking to just a minute ago? Furgus's Ghost? So/So ghost movie thats a bit confusing in it's ending and leaves you up in the air to who just both Dora and Mark are. Are they real people or some kind of disembodied spirits like Fergus. Is this their attempt to get Kathy back together with Jeremy and forgive him in order to free his soul from the torment he's suffering, due to his treatment of Kathy when he was alive. The ending of the movie tries to straighten out a lot of the uneven and confusing sub-plots in the movie with Kathy and Mark back together after she almost got killed in a traffic accident and Jeremy finally having his actions forgiven by Kathy and being able to "move on", like those of us watching the movie, to better things.
