Pretty Good

Just perfect...

As Good As It Gets

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

We know that both Guillaume Canet and Marion Cotillard are hugely talented actors and we also know that in real life they have been in a relationship since 2007 and have a child together, but seeing them in Le dernier vol it is difficult to believe either of the above statements. It is also difficult to engage in the film as the only positive is the cinematography. Apparently a true story, it is set in 1933 yet there is absolutely no sense of period and certainly no period 'feel'. The early thirties was a time when aviators were still attempting new records even six years after Lindbergh's solo Atlantic crossing. We enter the film when a pilot (who we never see) has crashed his plane in the desert in North Africa and has been missing for five days. His long-time mistress and fellow pilot (Marion Cotillard) is searching for him and attempts to get help from a detachment of the French army, themselves about to wage war on rebel tribesman. Essentially we have an uneasy merge of 'quest' movie and Boy's Own Paper conflict between the martinet commander and the peace-loving officer who has spent years winning the trust of the tribesman. To describe it as a disaster is to err on the side of kindness.

Big fan of French and foreign films. Huge fan of both mains actors. I really don't understand how they ended up in such a boring and disappointing movie. No storyline, no action, there's not even an end to this movie. It's like they didn't have enough money to finish filming this garbage. To say i'm even a fan of intellectual type movies, this doesn't even qualify in that category. I had almost bought it new at 35$ because i'm a fan of both actors and french films and i didn't... Bought it used at 4.99$ and i still think it was too much. I'm so disappointed and wasted an evening. The only good thing was the music: very middle-east, Morrocan type, which is why i gave this a 2 out of ten.

The film has some good points. It begins as a film about a French lieutenant in French Sahara who is trying to prevent his idiotic captain from causing a full-on crisis between the army and the Touareg. Along comes a French woman looking for her lost lover. At first it's just a distraction from the main, more interesting plot. Thus, for the first hour I really got into the film and was expecting to see the conflict between the French and the Touareg lead to an exciting climax. However, as the woman's story takes over the film turns into a disaster of boredom.None of the characters are well developed, and it is particularly sad that none of the Touareg were developed as characters. On the good side, the visuals are nice, the soundtrack excellent, and Marion Cotillard is pleasant to look at. Overall, this film is a prime example of could-have-been-better. A greater focus on the Touareg characters and their motivations, a more in-depth representation of the conflict between the French and the Touareg, and subjugating the love story to the background could have made this a great film.

Marion Cotillard, Guillaume Canet, a full complement of Touareg tribesmen in picturesque robes, beautiful desert landscapes -- sounds good, yes? But what we get is a slow-paced, dreary movie which seems to have no particular point to make. We are in the French Sahara in the 1930s. A conflict is established between a gung-go French captain, the commandant of the local garrison, who is determined to gain glory and promotion by crushing a local rebellion, and his lieutenant (Canet). The lieutenant appreciates the local culture, speaks the local language and tries to rein in the captain. In flies a French aviatrix (Cotillard) -- she's searching for her lover, an English pilot who has crashed in the desert. Actually, now that I think of it, there IS a point -- to show that Cotillard looks fetching on a camel. In this the film succeeds but not in much else.