Product: Last Days (2 Disc Special Edition)
Rating: 3.0
Great technique can't save a flawed story
Every decade has a transitional period, the time before that pivotal moment that defines the new decade and distinguishes it from the last. American pop music in the early 90's was no exception. It languished in the stale, formulaic offerings of the 80's until one song changed everything.Nirvana's 1991 single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" marked the birth of a new era in popular music. Soon after the song's video hit the airwaves, the dominant genres of glam rock and dance pop gave way to the ascendance of "grunge." As Nirvana's frontman, Kurt Cobain was dragged along for the ride.Cobain, a reluctant celebrity in life, was elevated to icon status upon his death. Gus Van Sant's Last Days is a fictionalized account of the days preceding Cobain's apparent suicide in 1994. The most surprising thing about this film is that it took ten years to materialize. Despite the specter of litigation from Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, the near absence of films about Cobain is surprising.Last Days marks the third and final installment of what director Van Sant refers to as his "death trilogy," consisting of three interpretations of man's isolation. In Gerry, two men are physically isolated when lost in the desert, while Elephant documents a tragedy resulting from the social isolation of two teenagers. Last Days attempts to convey the loneliness and despair of a rock star whose superficial social status masks his growing mental isolation.Van Sant's minimalist approach strips away most of the elements of a conventional story. Dialogue and a linear plot structure are sacrificed in an attempt to achieve an emotional purity. This technique has worked with varying levels of success in the previous films but ultimately fails in Last Days.The film follows Blake (Michael Pitt), a rock musician, as he leaves rehab and meanders to his crumbling mansion, a perfect setting for his disintegration. It soon becomes apparent that many people are trying to track Blake down. A series of encounters and phone calls illustrate his disillusionment from his "friends," many of whom seem only interested in convincing Blake to do things for their benefit.Oblivious to his torment, his roommates ignore the signs that something is terribly wrong. Their indifference is best demonstrated in the scene where Asia (Asia Argento) finds Blake collapsed on the floor clutching a rifle. She simply props him back up and tells no one about what she has seen. In another pivotal scene, Luke (Lukas Haas) sees a mysterious figure in the greenhouse but simply drives away without investigating. This foreshadowing is an illusion to the theory that Cobain was murdered, as the figure is clearly not Blake.The kindest way to describe the pace of Last Days might be languid but truthfully the word monotonous might be more appropriate. Perhaps this was a deliberate move by Van Sant to communicate the ennui of Blake's real life versus the usual perception that rock stars live more exciting lives than regular people.Ultimately, the outwardly banal dialogue of Elephant was effective in gradually exposing many of the petty injustices and cruelties of high school. Elephant's use of that commonality of experience with the viewer helped to make its characters real and sympathetic. In contrast, the incomprehensible mumblings of Blake in Last Days are less than illuminating. Where we should feel sympathy for Blake we gradually become disinterested and impatient for something to happen.The sole redeeming quality of Last Days is its masterful use of experimental cinematography. The lenghy abstracted shots convey a sense of easedropping on the participants. The gloomy interior scenes produces a palpable sense of depression and doom. Unfortunatley, while great technique will usually enhance a movie, it isn't enough to make up for Last Days other flaws.