“The Last Thing He Wanted” is a Netflix Watch Online American suspense thriller film directed by Dee Rees and starring Anne Hathaway, Ben Affleck, and Willem Dafoe, based on Joan Didion's 1996 novel of the same name, the plot follows Washington reporter Elena, driven by her inner sin to carry out an assignment for her father, only to be drawn into an incident she herself is tracking for no apparent reason, but The unfathomable inside story also leaves her confused and shocked.
I wish I hadn't seen this movie.
At the 2020 Oscars, Netflix releases such as "The Irishman," "Marriage Story" and "The two Popes" were nominated for a total of 24 awards, but only took home two when the final list of winners was announced. Perhaps the Oscars are not friendly to online video platforms, so it is a pity that these works cannot be further seen, but thinking about the reason for the judges' hostility, besides the fact that it changes people's viewing habits and affects the theater box office, from a viewer's point of view, I would like to ask that although Netflix has the ability to be nominated for many Oscars, before finding the above-mentioned excellent works, we How much time do we have to waste on the website to click on many other movies like "The Last Thing He Wanted" that make people shake their heads in disbelief?
The plot of "The Last Thing He Wanted"
The story of "The Last Thing He Wanted" focuses on Elena, an ambitious reporter for The Atlantic Post. Starting from the abolition of her original field of responsibility, she gives up covering the 1984 U.S. presidential election and chooses to help her father on a dangerous mission. As the mystery gets deeper and more complicated, the already confused inner mind becomes more confused and perplexed because of many external factors.
In terms of the overall text of the story, I like the fact that "The Last Thing He Wanted" is a political thriller in the form of a confrontation between the Reagan administration in the mid-1980s in the U.S., the Irangate affair, and the Sandinista National Liberation Front in Nicaragua and the organization "Contras". Through the combination of the real historical background, the audience can see the dark side of the world and human nature and the contradictions and helplessness that always exist wherever they are, through the accidental involvement of a female reporter in an incident she has been following for a long time.
Is "The Last Thing He Wanted" good?
But unfortunately, the final product of "The Last Thing He Wanted" is not as perfect as originally envisioned. In addition to the characters' personalities and backgrounds not being fully developed, the political tug-of-war between the United States and the Soviet Union in Nicaragua during the Cold War, as well as the tense situation and social landscape of the civil war there, are all depicted rather vaguely. Instead of echoing each other, they become a stumbling block that slows each other down, making the story even more confusing and unfocused.
The problem with "The Last Thing He Wanted" is definitely not only confusing for those who are not familiar with the relevant background but also that the whole film does not strike a delicate balance between realism and fantasy-like "Monos". The film's seemingly ambitious nature makes it uninformed and loose.
Disadvantages of watching "The Last Thing He Wanted" online
I think that in this era of online video platforms, although movies on Netflix are not as affected by box office pressure as traditional theatrical films, allowing the writers and directors more room for experimentation and creativity, there is no denying that with less audience screening and elimination mechanisms, the overall quality of the film is more or less lowered, and "The Last Thing He Wanted" will have such a "disastrous" result. The "disastrous" result of "The Last Thing He Wanted" is a clear example of not considering whether it can sell or whether the audience can understand it when it was made.
"The Last Thing He Wanted" is definitely not just confusing for viewers who are not familiar with the relevant background, but the entire script has problems that cannot be ignored, probably due to the desire to restore the narrative style of the novel, but also to have a political thriller atmosphere, so that "The Last Thing He Wanted" not only ends up being imprecise and full of many scenes that do not have much impact on the story itself, the film repeatedly makes the audience emotional. It also makes it more difficult for the film to build up and create tension in the plot.
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Themes and Execution of "The Last Thing He Wanted"
I understand what the story of "The Last Thing He Wanted" is trying to convey, but even though there are characters' insistence on pursuing the truth and their guilt for failing to take care of their families; there is the political division and chaos of Central America, and there is the dark side of the politics of democratic countries and the insidious promotion of violence, these issues are not only not explored in depth in the end, but the inconsistent tone and rhythm of the film also repeatedly give people a sense of intense The inconsistent tone and pacing of the film also creates an intense sense of detachment, severely hindering the audience's opportunity to think further.
The story of "The Last Thing He Wanted", which focuses on a journalist investigating armed violence in Nicaragua, ends up not only failing to present a complete picture of U.S. intervention in Central America but also failing to portray the characters' state of mind in depth, which is an awkward situation that is neither big enough nor small enough. The film's writer and director, Dee Rees, was a finalist for the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2018 for "Mudbound" but the result of "The Last Thing He Wanted" is really disappointing.
