Last Breath Movie Review: A Deep Dive into Underwater Rescues

Image credits: Mark Cassar / FOCUS FEATURES

The movie Last Breath is a fascinating film that’s more intriguing and emotionally driven than purely entertaining, driven by the true story of deep-sea divers on a rescue mission for one of their own. Directed by Alex Parkinson, the film stars Finn Cole, Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu, Mark Bonnar, Cliff Curtis, and Bobby Rainsbury. The baseline story follows the mission of real divers Chris Lemons, Duncan Allcock, and David Yuasa, who anchor the time-sensitive rescue at the story’s centre, playing their characters with refined realism and nuance.

For Canadian film fans, Simu Liu plays a wildly different kind of character in David, who’s far more resolved and firm, a great part and departure for him. Parkinson actually first told this same story in a 2019 documentary film, and this Hollywood remake is his dramatic debut. While the documentary is more compelling because of the real footage and people who lived through the mission, the film maintains an impressive degree of accuracy in its script and production. The film comes from Focus Features and maintains the tone of history drama that rarely gets seen on big screens anymore.

Tonally speaking, the film focuses more on the details of the plot as opposed to dramatizing them, which means while the subject and events are deeply interesting to watch, the moments of human drama feel a bit forced instead of carefully integrated into the narrative. With this story yearning to be an inspiring drama, however, that’s maybe to be expected, especially from a first-time narrative director. The screenplay is solid enough, which is a pleasant surprise given how easily it could’ve been waterlogged. The underwater cinematography, orchestrated by Nick Remy Matthews, is often startling, destined to make the dark box of a movie theatre all that more engagingly claustrophobic.

The film’s cast, including Harrelson, Cole, and Liu, are as committed to the script as their characters are to their outrageous mission. Harrelson emerges the strongest of the central trio, although it’s not exactly a heated contest, given that Cole spends most of his time unconscious and Liu is barely allowed more than a single character beat until the film’s very end. The ultimate story behind Last Breath is incredible, verging on the unbelievable – especially as it pivots around a wild scientific mystery that is all but waved away by the script. Some of the notable releases in the same genre include:

• The Perfect Storm
• Apollo 13
• The 2018 Thai cave rescue movies

Last Breath is a solid motion picture telling a genuinely unique story, brief, tight, and with emotions that are surface level, but the insights into the world of professional diving are solidly compelling, and enough of a reason to hold your last breath watching the rescue mission unfold. The film is now playing at Galaxy Cinemas Sault Ste. Marie, and it is a must-see for fans of biographical thrillers and underwater rescues.