Retro Film Review: The Last Word (1995)

Someone's misery is often someone else's good fortune. At least, this is the case with the protagonist of The Last Word, 1995 thriller written and directed by Tony Spiridakis. Martin Ryan (played by Timothy Hutton) is successful Detroit newspaper columnist who owes his career to the stories about grittier side of urban life. The source of inspiration and guide to the underworld is his childhood friend Doc (played by Joe Pantoliano) who now earns living as a low-level Mafioso. When Ryan falls in love with Sara (played by Michelle Burke), stripper with a shady past, Doc proposes that all of them move to California. There Ryan finds out about Doc's scheme to make a movie based on Ryan's writings and thus pay huge debt to the criminal organisation.

The plot of The Last Word promised an intriguing story about journalistic integrity, friendship, organised crime and dark side of Hollywood. Even more promising was great cast, which included such names like Timothy Hutton, Chazz Palminteri, Richard Dreyfuss, and Cybill Shepherd. But the promise was unfulfilled and The Last Word turned out to be disappointment. The script, despite its realism, is confused, torn between the realms of social drama and straightforward thriller, and the filmmakers are unable to decide whether to pay more attention to Hollywood sleaze or protagonist's personal problems. Even some of the more respectable names among actors proved to be disappointing in their cameos. However, Joe Pantoliano is always reliable in the anti-hero roles, same as Michelle Burke in the role of a stripper. This, together with Spiridakis' care about the look of the film, is enough to somewhat improve general impression of The Last Word, although not enough to make this impression long lasting.

RATING: 4/10 (+)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on August 27th 2002)

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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/63242-the-last-word?language=en-US
Critic: AA