Last Moment Of Clarity movie review: A dull and derivative thriller that looks more complex than it is

Sometimes I wonder if it is possible to make a crime thriller without the customary shot of “the wall of clues”. Those red threads entwined around photos and newspaper clippings, helping map the case for the investigator concerned — and also for the audience to know what they are getting into — are textbook tools for directors. More often than not, they make the maze worth your while, but unfortunately, Last Moment Of Clarity is a sorry exception. The debut directorial venture by Colin and James Krisel has ‘amateur’ written all over it, be it in the use of actors or in stitching together a coherent plot. For starters, stalwarts like Brian Cox and Udo Kier remain underutilised to a bothersome extent, while the plot primarily rests on an impassive Zach Avery, who plays lead protagonist Sam. The opening credits roll as the camera pans over a wall of clues, taking us into Sam’s world. It’s a world of empty stares and roaming listlessly on the streets of Paris, wearing a lovelorn expression propped by a thick beard. Turns out, Sam has been hiding in Paris for three years, after his girlfriend Georgia (Samara Weaving) got shot, moments before their house in Brooklyn mysteriously exploded. As the layers slowly peel off, we learn that they used to be a voyeuristic couple, who would train their lenses on the neighbour’s (Udo Kier) window, until one day they accidentally witness a murder. When hitmen come knocking at their door, they realise that their neighbour is actually an Eastern European mafia boss. After Georgia gets shot, Sam flees to Paris for cover, and since then he has been living the life of a drifter, working as a delivery boy at a restaurant. Why he feels Paris is a safe place to hide from Eastern Europe gangsters, is not explained. [caption id=“attachment_9553841” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  Still from Last Moment of Clarity[/caption] The lifeless loop of his existence breaks when he chances upon a film where the lead actress, Lauren Clerk, turns out to be the spitting image of his ex, Georgia. After some more sighing and staring and trying too hard to look the brooding type, Sam sets off to Los Angeles to solve the mystery of his resurrected lady love, while we are left to wonder why a girl, presumably seeking a new identity, would choose a career under the public eye in La La Land. And this is only the beginning of a series of coincidences unrealistic enough to test the limits of fiction. At the premiere of Lauren’s film where he tries to break in, Sam runs into an old high school classmate, Kat (Carly Chaikin), who instantly takes to him despite his obviously distraught and paranoid state. And although she only works as a small-time publicist, she somehow comes equipped with a taser and a gun that come in very handy when Sam gets attacked, repeatedly, over the course of the film. Lauren, on the other hand, after several rounds of denials of her past self, comes around almost overnight and succumbs to Sam’s lovelorn obsession. What started off as wee bit Gone Girl with elements of Rear Window, is now bordering on an even poorly made rom-com, and by this point we have stopped counting the holes in the plot. Samara Weaving, fresh from the euphoric success of Ready Or Not and Hollywood, may have been the biggest draw of this film, but despite a double role, her performance is as insipid as it gets. It appears she was only brought in for skin and screams with the occasional pouty red lipstick.

The film’s surprise package is Carly Chaikin as Kat. Her actions defy logic but an earnest performance from Chaikin makes it believable. Kat’s track in the story is the only one that brings in some amount of intrigue to this universe of absurdity. She offers an engrossing mix of snarky and whimsy and intense, managing to keep you invested in her world. This would have been a much better film had the story just dived into Kat. The major undoing of this film is how deceptive it looks. Andrew Wheeler does an impressive job as cinematographer creating an atmosphere of a noir thriller, with ample amounts of lens flares and blurs and some very grunge shots of Paris. Every moment is made to appear more tense and complex than it actually is. As a result, a sinister buildup falls flat in the face of a vanilla reveal. Many thrillers come with unconvincing plots, but then it is up to a razor-sharp central character to steer the ship. Zach Avery’s Sam is too unstable to pull that off – one moment he’s a vulnerable lover pining for his dead girlfriend, and in the next, he is pointing a gun at the mafia boss. Neither the screenplay nor Avery’s acting chops offer enough to justify these polarities. The dialogues are clunky and the screenplay rushes to a convenient conclusion that one can see a mile away. To some extent, it is Chaikin alone who stops the film from being a complete bore - the Mr Robot actress clearly shines over Samara Weaving in this one. The supremely talented Brian Cox appears in a very small role as Sam’s sagely restaurant manager Gilles. So don’t go by his misleading appearance on the poster alongside Weaving. All his character gets to do is speak in a heavy Scottish accent, mouthing the occasional French proverb to make Sam see sense. Sadly for us, he fails as miserably as this dull and derivative thriller. Last Moment Of Clarity is currently streaming on Bookmyshow Stream