The Last Word Blu-ray
Evan Merck is a writer who meets Charlotte after his client’s funeral and falls in love with her in a twisted film that tries too much to be a romantic comedy.
Film making 2/25
Cinematography 13/25
Audio 15/25
Bonus Features 2/25
Total 32/100
The Last Word is a very twisted tale of romance between a writer and the sister of his latest victim of suicide, yep, I did say that the brother killed himself. Evan Merck, played by Wes Bentley, is a poet who ghost writes the suicide note for people contemplating taking their own lives.
When he attends the funeral in the background of his latest client the sister spies him and introduces herself only to have Evan come up with his first lie in the relationship. Charlotte, played by Winona Ryder, is the sister of Evans latest victim and is attracted to Evan even though he is quite evasive and closed.
Charlotte forces herself into Evans life through a series of dates and even invites him to meet her family but Evan tries hard to keep his distance. He also tries hard to keep his lies straight as he is forced to come up with more to keep his true job from Charlotte and her family.
Evan is drawn to Charlotte and he finds she is quirky but enjoyable company as he tries to continue writing for more clients and still keep his cool while dating Charlotte. Evan tells Charlotte he is writing a screenplay when she finds some of his work and comments on how dark it is so Evan spins a tale of a police drama.
She introduces Evan to a screen writer she knows in her Yoga class only to have Evan find out he knows him as a potential client. Charlotte sees Evan at a café with another woman and starts to follow him only to see him with the same woman the next day.
Charlotte goes into Evans apartment and finds the file drawer marked client files and breaks in to read his past client’s letters. She figures out what he does and sees the file for her brother with pictures of Charlotte with him that the brother gave to Evan for help in writing his suicide letter.
Evan asks Charlotte for forgiveness in several phone calls but she never returns his calls only to see her when she is dropping some stuff off at his door. He tells her that he could not have helped her brother when she confronts him about not caring about the people he writes the suicide letters for.
Evan tells her that her brother had cancer and was in a lot of pain but she still runs away from him because she just does not understand, she’s not the only one. After Evan has a close encounter with a mugger he tries to talk to one of his clients but his latest client, played by Ray Romano, has decided to end it.
Evan suddenly takes an interest in his latest client and goes to where he knows the client will jump off an overpass to try and talk him out of it. The scene ends with Evan looking at the overpass sidewalk and the sound of traffic suddenly stopping as if the sound was cut without knowing if the client jumped, the clients name is never mentioned.
While Evan is packing Charlotte comes and confronts him and Evan talks to her about why he thinks he started writing suicide letters and what he wants to do now. Charlotte tells him she knows he was not at fault for her brother committing suicide and that she should have been there for her brother when he needed her.
The film ends with Evan and Ray Romano running a business that Ray had mentioned to Evan about wanting to start for people who are frustrated with their electronics and other products. They own a cliff and people can throw their devices off to end in a nice fireball from the explosives attached to it complete with video of the destruction.
This movie has terrible main storyline with a very dumb premise of a writer making a living concocting suicide notes but it is handled in a totally serious manner from the start. There is so much wrong with the premise of someone actually running a business like this but it is handled in the film as a regular day job for Evan run through a website.
Aside from that the people he meets in the job do not really affect him even though he says to one client that he guesses about 30 percent of his clients really do commit suicide. This would start to bother most people and in the end of the film Evan does tell Charlotte that he is probably writing these notes because he is avoiding feelings himself in doing so.
I just could not get into the film and it did not make much sense to me as a comedy, even a dark one, because the entire premise of Evan and his job is just not believable. The film is handled well as a regular drama, on the darker side, but I just could not get past the entire ghost writer for suicides.
The Blu-ray edition has a couple of extras like some still images and deleted scenes but nothing to even bother with as the film is not even worth watching. I do not recommend this at all for anyone, it is not a cheap production with no name stars but a well made film that started off with a terrible story.
The Last Word is a terrible movie and not worth even getting as a rental much less purchasing, avoid this at all costs.