Product: The Last Sign (2005)
Rating: 3.0
ANDIE PANDERS
Don't be fooled by the trailer for this one. What appears to be a "thriller" is merely a romantic fantasy/drama, and one that moves rather ponderously at that. Lovely Andie McDowell plays a young widow with three precocious children. She lost hubby Tim Roth (in a vastly underused performance) the night she decided to leave him. Roth, an idealistic surgeon, had turned to a life of alcohol and abuse, and was killed in a car crash in pursuit of his vacating family. McDowell is now working at a lab, with buddy Margot Kidder trying to get her to cope with her loss. Enter a handsome doctor (well played by Samuel LeBihan) who falls for McDowell and becomes a surrogate daddy for the younguns. Problem is McDowell is starting to "see" her dead husband and is even getting mysterious phone calls every night at 12:15 a.m., the exact time of Roth's death. Ultimately, THE LAST SIGN becomes a tale of redemption, forgiveness and moving on. McDowell seems lost in the role and Kidder's performance is eerily kooky. The movie doesn't have any real suspense and becomes more or less a Harlequin romance with the predictable happy ending.