Strong and Moving!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Another nice little recent film from France that lacked the wattage to get into American theaters. People will look at it now, because lead actor Gaspard Ulliel's strong presence and savage faun look have made him a star. He has shone in such films as Téchiné's Égarés (Strayed) and the upcoming Hannibal Rising that exploit his wild look, his animalistic air of danger. He is frequently seen as frightening and independent. He is sweet as the boyfriend in A Very Long Engagement, though. The Last Day shows him off better as an actor because here he is almost always on screen, but is allowed to be hesitant, mysterious -- the essence of a film that holds back its meanings and makes us guess what's going on. Simon is delicate, thoughtful and kind, a manchild and a slightly maladroit creature who detaches by filming and photographing the world. In playing Simon, Ulliel reveals admirable restraint. He shows how an actor must use he physical equipment. His looks are striking, but what counts is that he can do such different things with them.Simon (Ulliel) is a young arts student. On the night train to his family's Christmas party he picks up a girl who comes along and then quickly takes up with someone who seems to be Simon's former flame. Simon sleeps with (along side) her, but can't have her. And he's been left out of the know because despite being all of 18 he still isn't aware of something important about himself. Rodolphe Marconi's film is nicely understated, never dwelling on a scene too long, stingy with dialogue and scornful of flashy effects. Ulliel's delicacy is essential to these qualities. So is something inaccessible about him that helps keep his somewhat pathetic situation from ever seeming sentimental. Mélanie Laurent as the girl and Christophe Malavoy as the head of the household help round out an impeccable cast.The Last Day is full of a dry French tact, and escapes being dreary (if only just) by the characters' composure and fortitude. Simon is an athlete (swimming, tennis), but also a good sport in everything--and despite his breathtaking ease in the pool, he has a jerky little walk. What good manners he has! He is always there in deep close-ups, bashful and quiet. Yet we feel his hurt all the more deeply because it isn't acted out. Bruno Todeschini simmers. Nicole Garcia is like a more ravaged Rampling. There's nothing not to like except the ditsy pop songs with English lyrics. Fortunately at a crucial late scene an elegant John Lewis piano solo takes over.

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

In many respects, I could tell that this movies convey a rather deep meaning and not just ordinary teenage-gay-boy romance story which mostly end up in either bad or happy ending. This movie is alike to many of other French movies that I saw before which contains little or minimal dialogue. It conveys the message through showing "symbolic scenes".However what troubles me the most is not such 'absence of dialogue' but rather the clarity and sense of direction in the film. The love that grow between Simon and Matthew is only evident somehow in the middle of the film but for the rest - it is clearly unclear of what Simon thinks or at least other characters should have played greater role to clarify the role of the main character. As a result of this unclarity - all scenes appear to be just randomly and awkwardly put in.The movie is incredibly slow. There is no significant or notable progression that the audience should be rewarded after watching the film for around 2 hours.Aside from the talented and good looking actor Gaspard Ulliel (who played Simon), there is no other aspects of either in the story or plot that makes me eager to recommend this film to the general audiences.5 out of 10

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')****