Director Alex Parkinson and his two co-writers, Mitchell LaFortune and David Brooks, have created the “fiction re-make” feature of the documentary (by the same name) the filmmaker released in 2019. The documentary was noted to have been available on Netflix after a UK release, according to IMDb, with the new feature film now in U.S. theaters. I have not seen the documentary prior to viewing the new feature, but as I viewed the film with great actors, I anticipated some great thrilling sequences during the film. I am disappointed that the expectations of “thrilling” were not met, but the film is good in general to have learned about the true story this film is based on.
This film is about Chris Lemons (played by Finn Cole, “Peaky Blinders” and “Animal Kingdom” TV series), a saturation diver who survives an accident while he was on his way to do maintenance on an oil pipeline in the North Sea. His team of three include Duncan Allcock (Woody Harrelson, Fly Me to the Moon, Triangle of Sadness), a veteran diver set to be on his last job before retirement, and David Yuasa (Simu Liu, Arthur the King, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), a tenured, rather reserved diver.
The day the scheduled maintenance is to be done, a storm hits, the positioning system fails, the ship is drifting, causing issues for Chris and David on the ocean floor. Duncan is in the diving bell secured to the ship on the surface, trying to help the two divers. David returns to the diving bell alone, then begins his rescue mission to find Chris who has a limited air supply.
These are some good action scenes and cinematography by director of photography Nick Remy Matthews. While dramatic, there is something missing that does not spark thrills. What is exciting to watch are the suspenseful minutes of air supply that Chris has and what he does to survive. He does not have light, uses a flare to guide him and the shade of red underwater on screen can cause the viewer some chills while viewing. Kudos to the filmmakers for these scenes.
Chris has an anxious fiancée, Morag (Bobby Rainsbury), pre-and-post dive, but this film does not reveal more about the couple. Duncan Allcock is a veteran diver and described as “being forced into retirement” without knowing more about someone who appears to care deeply about his fellow divers and their future on dangerous jobs. It would have been good to have more details about Morag and his colleagues, but the filmmakers saw otherwise. A couple of the characters aboard ship have dialogue that makes them come across too wooden as they deal with the crisis at hand. Enjoy this at the matinee fee.
Additional Cast: Nick Biadon, Connor Reed, Cliff Curtis, Christian Scicluna, Riz Khan, Daithí O’Donnell
Last Breath opens in theaters nationwide on Friday, February 28.
Runtime: 91 minutes, MPAA Rating: PG-13 for brief strong language
Source: Focus Features, IMDb