Product: Last Days (2 Disc Special Edition)
Rating: 5.0
Give it a chance - you might be surprised
I didn't expect to like this film given the plethora of bad reviews and held off watching it for a while. During the opening sequence where 'Kurt' (let's not pretend he's meant to be anyone else) staggers inexplicably through the woods I started to have my doubts but wasn't too concerned given I had readied myself for a potential dud. Yet as the film film progressed I became less and less concerned with the reasoning behind the unfolding events and started to simply 'feel' the tone of the film and where GVS was coming from in his interpretation of a modern tragedy.Essentially the only narrative in this film is that Cobain (given the name Blake in this) had left this earth before he pulled the trigger, it doesn't seek to document the potential real life sequence of events, it is simply a rumination and in my view a beautifully realised one to the point where I considered it a work of art.If you aren't interested or indifferent to Cobain then I'm not sure how you could enjoy this film because it demands a great degree of understanding and reverance for it's subject in order to appreciate what Van Sant is trying to communicate with it. The sequences are long, mostly without dialogue and with very minimal action involved (though beautifully shot); perhaps that was one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much, it was so different from the normal 'busy' style of most film and television.I can only speak for myself in saying that had I listened to the naysayers and avoided it altogether I would have deprived myself of a great film experience.