THE LAST MOMENT OF CLARITY
US, 2020, 90 minutes, Colour.
Zach Avery, Samara Weaving, Carly all Chaikin, Brian Cox, Udo Keir, Alex Fernandez.
Directed by Coliln Krisel, James Krisel.
A brief drama, melodrama, low-budget, written and directed by first timers Colin and James Krisel. It is a thriller, set in Paris, New York, California. And, it has echoes of Vertigo.
Zach Avery is the central character, Sam, not always a sympathetic hero. He is on the run in Paris, befriended by a Scottish bartender played by Brian Cox (giving the film some strength as does Udo Keir in a cameo role as an Eastern European Mafia chief in hospital dying of cancer). Sam thinks his girlfriend, Georgia (Samara Weaving) is dead, victim of thugs because Sam had photographed the Mafia chief actually killing a woman. Their apartment is attacked, the death of one of the thugs, Georgia disappearing.
However, Sam likes to go to the movies, sees a film with an actress, Laura, who resembles Georgia. He goes to California to track her down, encountering a friendly woman, Kat, rather tough, who befriends him and helps him in his quest. Laura denies being Georgia.
However, after being confronted several times, she admits the truth, the memories of what had happened with the hitman. The hitmen are after them, building up to a showdown, shootout – and a happy beach and sunlit ending.
- Brief drama? Low-budget, the initial work of the directors and writers?
- The settings, Paris, the city, the apartment, the bar? The background in New York? The apartment, the attack, the photo? California, the city, hotels, theatre, cinema, socials? The musical score?
- Sam and his story, his personality, waking in Paris, going to work, the discussions with Gilles? The memories of Georgia, the bath sequence? The flashbacks to the gunmen, the attack, the shooting, the death? His photo of the man killing the woman in the opposite window? His increasing obsession, advice from Gilles? Going to the cinema, seeing Georgia in the film, the name Laura? Gilles urging him to go to California to settle things? The trip, the hotel, the encounter with Kat, her friendship, helping him out, working together? The social, observing, her going to talk with the Laura, Sam talking with Laura, her not being Georgia, having a fiance? His going to the party, confronting her in the toilet, the pulling the gun?
- The background of the photograph, Eastern European Mafia, the phone calls, the hitman then friends, coming to California? The Mafia chief dying of cancer, in the hospital, Sam going to see him, the discussions about life and death? The other thugs, the thug avenging his brother’s death, orders from the chief, or not?
- Sam, confronting Laura, her admitting the truth, his thinking that she was dead, her fears, leaving the apartment after the attack, finding a new life, her fiance? Their love for each other, the sexual encounter? The future?
- The hired killer, with the Mafia chief, going to shoot Sam in the hotel, his earpiece, the chief telling him not to kill Sam?
- The buildup to the climax, Kat and her leaving, in the car, seeing the thugs coming, returning, the fiance and his discussions with Laura, the truth? The thugs attacking, the guns and the shooting, deaths?
- The finale, the beach, freedom?
