Last Breath review: Apollo 13 goes under the sea
“It’s fairly gripping from moment to moment, but also hemmed in by its own sense of historical integrity.”
Pros:
- Grippingly suspenseful at times
- Admirably focused on the nitty gritty of its true story
Cons:
- A little dramatically skimpy at 93 minutes
- The characterizations are corny
“It’s like going into space, but underwater,” saturation diver Chris Lemons (Finn Cole) says of his uncommon vocation, fixing manmade machinery at depths to which man was not meant to descend. His fiancée takes little comfort in the comparison, nor should she. Impossibly dark, severely cold, perilous to the oxygen dependent: In Last Breath, the sea floor really does seem a lot like the vacuum of space. No wonder the mind wanders to crucibles of astronauts during the suspenseful passages of this ripped-from-the-captain’s-log survival thriller.
The movie is pretty no-nonsense, too. It’s been made with the attention to detail—and the allergy to dramatic fabrication—you’d expect from a documentarian who feels beholden to the truth of a story he’s unpacked at length. Parkinson tracks the situation in something like real time, crosscutting from the darkness below to the scramble of the damage control above. He keeps his focus locked on locking mechanisms, among other specifics of the equipment that put Lemons in peril. Last Breath wants us to understand what went wrong that day, and the measures the crew took to respond, from manually rebooting the computer system to attempting to use a drone to carry an unconscious body to the surface.
You can see the breadth of research that went into the project, as well as Parkinson’s admirable refusal to gild the lily with action-movie exaggerations. What actually happened is exciting enough, he reasons, half-reasonably. His commitment to verisimilitude is both the film’s greatest asset and its ultimate limitation. It’s possible to admire a just-the-facts-ma’am approach to this material while still pining for a little Hollywood embellishment. At a mere 93 minutes, Last Breath could use more complications. It’s fairly gripping from moment to moment, but also hemmed in by its own sense of historical integrity—by the dogged way Parkinson sticks to the factual outline of a situation that’s a few escalations shy of a truly ripping yarn.
If there are liberties here, they’re mostly in the matter of characterization. Beyond a score that swells inspirationally at key junctures, the phoniest thing about Last Breath is the little arcs it provides the divers between scenes of oceanic danger, rescue preparation, or precariously analog workarounds. Will Harrelson’s Duncan make peace with his forced retirement from a career in the watery deep? Will a matter of life or death put any cracks in the stony facade of professionalism that Liu’s Dave wears like a second helmet? And while Chris may be married to the sea, it’s his impending marriage to Morag (Bobby Rainsbury) that we’re meant to cling to like a buoy when all seems lost and the air supply seems depleted.
In the documentary, Parkinson resorted to sleight of hand—some selective withholding of information—to disguise how this true story ends. No such trickery is required in his second shot at Last Breath, because the film unfolds entirely in the present tense; it’s one of a few ways it proves more successful than its nonfiction predecessor at putting the audience right down there in the water with Chris, knuckles whitened, eyes on the clock. At the same time, the very fact that Hollywood executives saw box office potential in his ordeal should give you some hint of how it’s resolved. Audiences will accept a disaster movie of meticulous scientific accuracy so long as it ends the way they hope and the music promises it will.
Conclusion:
Last Breath is a gripping and intense thriller that explores the dangers of saturation diving. While it may be a bit too short and lacking in dramatic flair, it’s a well-crafted film that will keep you on the edge of your seat. If you’re a fan of disaster movies or are interested in the true story behind Last Breath, it’s definitely worth checking out.
FAQs:
Q: Is Last Breath a true story?
A: Yes, the film is based on the true story of Chris Lemons, a saturation diver who was trapped in a diving bell during a rescue operation in 2012.
Q: Is Last Breath a Hollywood production?
A: Yes, the film was produced by Focus Features and directed by Alex Parkinson.
Q: Is Last Breath a typical disaster movie?
A: No, Last Breath is a more grounded and realistic take on the disaster genre, focusing more on the scientific and technical aspects of the rescue operation rather than sensationalized drama.
Q: Is Last Breath worth watching?
A: Yes, if you’re a fan of disaster movies or are interested in the true story behind Last Breath, it’s definitely worth checking out.
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