The Last Great Wilderness (2002)

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

THE LAST GREAT WILDERNESS is a weird little Scottish movie. The copy I saw of it was so cheap that it looked like it had been filmed on somebody's Camcorder, although I'm sure that wasn't the case. It's a film that's heavily indebted to THE WICKER MAN in terms of storyline, which sees a pair of disparate characters heading up to a remote village and encountering some very weird locals.If I'm honest I didn't enjoy this film at all. The script is sub-par and the quirky character work doesn't really add anything to the experience. Most of the second half, which is where the interesting stuff lies, is shot in the dark so that it's difficult to see what's going on. None of the characters are remotely sympathetic, and come the end I didn't really understand or care what was happening to them either. Other than minor roles for TRIAL & RETRIBUTION tag-team David Heyman and Victoria Smurfit, THE LAST GREAT WILDERNESS has very little going for it.

I must admit the comments about this "Straw dogs meets Wickerman" had me intrigued enough to want to watch this. Alas, I had never gotten an opportunity to see it on the cinema owing to the big cinemas' attitude of this being an 'indie' movie and not worth the trouble. Moreover I was pleasantly surprised.The Last Great Wilderness is a very low budget flick shot in the style of Dog Soldiers (lots of hand-held camera, bleak Scottish locations and swearing). Alistair McKenzie is Charlie, a lonely soul who is on a mission to Skye to burn down the house of the pop star who stole his wife (although we never get to meet either in the film). He bumps into Vincente, a half Spanish(?), half English fugitive on the run from some gangland thug who believes Vincente was banging his wife and wants to kill him for it. Vincente and Charlie, reluctantly, team up together and end up at a petrol station somewhere in Scotland with no petrol and a ghost. They chance upon a Lodge in the middle of Scottish nowhere, in search of help and petrol. Instead, they find a group of 'damaged' individuals sharing a retreat headed by David Hayman, a non judgemental fellow assisting with their treatment. Hayman's character takes the two men in and they are befriended of sorts by the community consisting of a sex addict, young mother and child, priest in conflict and a gamekeeper who is not part of the community. Vincente takes advantage of the 'sex addict' whilst Charlie strikes up conversation with Claire, the young mother. After it is revealed that the gamekeeper's daughter is the ghost that Vincente keeps seeing, things continue to get less clear. The head of the community, Ellie is dying and the two men take part in her wake, which involves them both dressing up as women. Whilst being made up by Claire, Charlie takes a leap of faith and makes love to her, an act which is quite touching, giving Charlie's troubled situation. Vincente, however, is pursued over the rough land by the gangland hired killers he has been running from and falls foul of both, his life being mercifully shortened by the gamekeeper whilst Charlie kills the two hired killers. There are no happy endings in this film, though as Charlie tries to return to life and leaves the community.For me, this film was enjoyable and had an edge to it which keeps the viewer guessing. Little questions crop up for example, why does the community take pictures of Charlie and Vincente when they are asleep? Why does Claire feel she has ruined three lives? Is there something more painful to Charlie's withdrawal? These questions are not answered but perhaps that's for the best.

Saw this movie this evening as part of the local film festival - really thought it was great. The script was really rather unpredictable, and very funny. Casting, acting, writing, etc all came together to make it a great film.The Wicker Man comes up often with this film, deservedly so - not that it is in any way a rip off, quite original actually - it's just the vibe you get. It was really interesting to be so completely outside the people in the retreat when Charlie and Vince arrive - it was so difficult to tell what was going on, and the audience kind of gets to figure it out with the main characters - a neat device. I was thrown off a bit by Vince's last scene in the film - it did not seem to fit with the pace of the movie. I'm glad that it made it out of Scotland. so the rest of us can see it!!

A good attempt to do something different. Has a weird, off-beat feel to it, and the community hidden away in the highlands is well drawn. The cast do well in fleshing out their characters, and there is a sense of foreboding and melancholy that slowly creeps up on you. At first I wasn't totally convinced by Charlie (Alistair McKenzie)'s journey as a character, until he's wondering through the woods and finds an old rusty trampoline. With nobody around, he's free to bounce up and down on it like a kid. This sounds a bit dumb, but it was really quite effective - you really got the sense of a guy finally being able to open up and enjoy himself. Good stuff all round, well directed, moody cinematography, deserves to be seen by a wider audience. .