The Last Day (2004)

Let's be realistic.

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

The acting in this movie is really good.

I loved all the symbolism. Mind you - you didn't need it - nothing came out of left field at all in this movie. In fact, you were shown the denouement right at the outset - no happy endings for this movie then...Even Mommy-dearest's 'earth-shattering' disclosure to Simon, came as no great shakes, because it had been presaged by the scene with Marie snooping through Louise's Filofax and exhibiting over-the-top shock at her surname.It was obvious at the outset that Simon was gay. (!!! - he's FRENCH - how many more clues do you need??? - little joke, there). Then when you meet the 'Adam's Family' back home, it's clear he's not one of them (the Adam's Family, that is!) Then we find out that Simon has the hots for Mathieu who turns out to be a young version of Marc - his mother's toy-boy*.So - S&M are going to get it together, oui? Non - parce que LOUISE and Mathieu effectively get married at the Family's Christmas do. Louise is in her wedding dress. The 'Young married couple to be' (NOT specifically S&L) are toasted, and M&L have their post-wedding dance together, with a salutary 'guard of honour' supplied by the local 'matelots'.So that's both S&M AND S&L killed with one stone.... and talking of birds, the seagulls telegraphed the state of S&M's relationship at the outset.At the Lighthouse (a monster boner, BTW - signifying what a stud-muffin M is!) Mathieu's seagull was dead, never to be seen and 'yuk' (rotten) and outside on the balcony.Simon's seagull was also dead, but preserved in S's bedroom, wings outstretched, head turned as if in grief, in the exact same pose as the b&w photo of a Michaelangelo bust, in S's photo portfolio.So S was preserving his feelings for M, whereas M's feelings for S were dead, defenestrated and left to rot.... and it took LOUISE to literally tell us this fact. Appreciative applause - a master stroke!) The wheeling seagulls permeated the seaside environs, symbolising the very whirlwind, which is life and love, of course...* So apart from being French, why else is Simon gay? Very possibly because he didn't have a father. He had a cold relationship with his mother's husband, and so spent his life 'looking for Dad' which is how SOME interpret homosexuality.No surprise then, that Mathieu is the spit of Marc - his real Dad. No surprise either that the erotic bed scene of S on M's bed, is echoed at the end, with S on his Dad's bed - the other M.Incidentally, we know well in advance that Marc is Simon's Dad, because Marie spells it out in discussion with Louise about her real relationship with S. 'Like sister and brother?' All good stuff. You know what the outcome's going to be way in advance, but unlike Star Wars, it's a very entertaining and enjoyable ride getting there all the same.

Young writer-director Rodolphe Marconi introduces us to 18 year-old Simon (the extremely handsome and talented Gaspard Ulliel, "A Very Long Engagement"), who brings a girl he just met on a train, Louise (Mélanie Laurent), along with him to visit his parents and sister for a holiday in the country. As the mysterious Mathieu (Thibault Vinçon), Simon's unrequited love, reappears, Louise and Mathieu develop a liaison of their own, and we contemplate Simon's morbid sadness as dark secrets are uncovered."The Last Day" is a very personal, slow-paced, sensual and tragic story. It's very French in its aesthetics (which I love) and mood, and Marconi owes great part of his film's power to the amazing talent of Ulliel, who says more with a single look than most of today's young actors with a thousand words. In spite of his first bad move in Hollywood with "Hannibal Rising", I believe Ulliel is destined to become an international star (and if he doesn't, that's also fine, as long as he keeps picking daring roles in great films in his homeland). The soundtrack is also eclectic and memorable, and Marconi even reserves "the improvised, sudden musical scene" that's a trademark of some contemporary French directors, like François Ozon and Christophe Honoré. It could seem out of place and even ridiculous, but works beautifully here. Not a film for everybody, and ultimately depressing; but a memorable, poignant experience nonetheless. 9/10.

Rodolphe Marconi ('Love Forbidden') is a director and writer to watch. He has a signature style already (he is quite young in the industry) and knows how to use that sensitivity to tell touching stories. LE DERNIER JOUR or THE LAST DAY is a mood piece, spare on dialogue, misty in its depiction of young emotional feelings, challenging in its play with time devices, and ultimately very satisfying for those who enjoy the French manner of film making.Simon (the very handsome and gifted young actor Gaspard Ulliel of 'A Very Long Engagement') boards a train bound for the coast where he is to spend time in his family's seaside cabin. Most of his ride is spent gazing out the windows at the misty countryside, telling us more about this lonely, lost, vulnerable young eighteen year boy than a thousand words. On the train is a young girl Louise (Mélanie Laurent) who seems to be shadowing him. When Simon arrives home he is met by his loving mother Marie (Nicole Garcia), his sister Alice (Alysson Paradis) and his father. Louise joins Simon as a guest in his home and his family thinks the two are a couple. Though they sleep in the same bed, Simon's mind and longing are for a lad who lives in the lighthouse, Mathieu (Thibault Vinçon). Simon visits Mathieu, with Louise not far behind, and though we feel a kinship between the two boys, Louise forces her attention on Mathieu and Simon becomes a third party. In a telling moment when the three are in a pub Louise insists that Simon and Mathieu kiss, and that kiss tells a lot about the current state of mind of both boys. Simon becomes isolated, longs for Mathieu who has moved on from their past relationship, an emotional level which is culminated in a visit to Mathieu's home where Simon, alone on Mathieu's bed, re-visits the passion and lust and love for Mathieu in a scene of radiant beauty.Simon's parents argue at all times and this leads to the discovery of a previous affair his mother had, an affair which holds secrets that drive a stake into Simon's relationship to Louise and to his mother's lover who as he visits the mother uncovers significant mysteries. The story ends tragically in a coda suggestive of the beginning of the film. It is stunning.For some the sparse dialogue may prevent the storyline from driving clearly, but in the hands, eyes, and body of Gabriel Ulliel words are wholly unnecessary. If there were no other reason to see this very sensitive film, having the opportunity to observe the talented Ulliel would be sufficient. Recommended viewing, in French with English subtitles. Grady Harp

I really like the following description of main character, Simon, found at another web site----"Simon is a sensitive, private, lonely, broken, and tormented soul." We are introduced to S. during his travel home for a holiday visit, travel during which he meets another young voyager (Louise), who he winds up inviting into his home. Somewhat surprisingly we find it is not upon Louise that Simon's thoughts dwell, but rather on boyhood companion (and likely more), Mathieu. Something of their earlier (most likely sexual) relationship is alluded to during Simon's visit to a local lighthouse and his conversation with Mathieu, who is its keeper. While he might have been hoping for some sort of rekindling, it soon becomes apparent to Simon, and to us, that M. is moving on as concerns his relationship preferences (yes, he likely enjoys the wild kiss he initiates with S.---at Louise's urging---but not enough to change his current course). Louise is now his focus, something that becomes 'majorly' upsetting to S.If you require further proof of Simon's true feelings, you need only view the late-in-the-film scene in which S. enters Mathieu's quarters (when M. is away), makes his way to the bed, lies in it, eyes closed, holding the bedclothes, then the pillow, to his nose and deeply breathes in Mathieu's scent. While doing this, he is moved to initiate his own self-gratification. A tremendously sexy scene---I kept hoping Mathieu would appear in the doorway, but obviously other things were afoot.Mother, Marie's, startling disclosure near film's conclusion, concerning one of the major relationships in Simon's life, results in an ending you are unlikely to soon forget.PS--Much of this script is a little slow moving and, sometimes, repetitive. My 6 awarded Stars are aimed, primarily, at Ulliel's acting as Simon, but also at Garcia's as mother. I won't be throwing this out of my DVD collection, but likely will not be viewing it often.****SOME LATER-IN-TIME THOUGHTS (A POSTMORTEM, IF YOU WILL)(May, 2007)---Following young (late teens) Simon as the film begins, and later meeting those who make up the short arc of his life, we begin our study of a most fragile existence. Almost immediately we're given Louise. "Learning" about this young (past mid-teens) girl who appears at story's beginning---and sticks with Simon almost throughout---becomes strangely intriguing. Who, indeed, is Louise? His fiancée-to-be......is she really? Or is she something else?Next, there's the question of his family: Simon has an unhappy relationship with his father, one of misunderstandings. The connection with his 2-year older sister is a contentious one. That then leaves his loving and protective mother......a mother who comes across as being ultimately perceptive of a very fragile son. This, strangely, is the same mother who at film's end gives him absolutely catastrophic news......and then, ending the family's vacation, departs their seaside home leaving Simon completely alone. At that point we have been given, in a most jolting manner by the film's writer/director, something her type mother would never, never ever do.Ah.........but Mother is not to worry for, as this tale draws to an end, a shockingly devastating scene is being caught for us and for her by "video camera nut," Simon----preserving on film, as he so likes to do, life's important events.If any film on DVD cries out for a Director's Commentary, it is this one. As just one reason, there are numerous action jumps / changes wherein the preceding scene activity has (apparently?) nothing to do with that which follows. Some are only one shot long (such as a night-time scene of a man entering a near-distant home of two lit rooms, then moving from one room to the other, turning out lights as he goes-----leaving us with only a twinkling indoor Christmas tree as the shot fades). What's that about?=======================(How I love the oh-so-fitting label reviewer, Chris Knipp, of Berkeley, CA, has applied to Gaspard Ulliel--- 'Savage Fawn')****