The Last Sign (2005)

disgusting, overrated, pointless

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Widowed, too young, I must say that "The Last Sign" was not all that far-fetched, for what really happens, 'when'.According to the experts, the paranormal is 'normal' in the case of sudden death, violent death or not, especially if the grieving 'other' is young. The normal self-system rebels against death, in general, because the message of youth is life. As a result, hallucinations, at least, and wild dreams are normal, for a bit, till the mind of the grief-stricken has a moment to recover from the shock. If the grief-stricken person has a path to the paranormal, the hallucinations are quite real apparitions, visions and perceptions. Such are meant to be used as tools to help/resolve, and often are. hallucinations are merely nature's 'buffers' for the shock and usually go their way, soon enough. Our heroine was right to get help when it went on, though. That is the key to normal/crazy in it: its duration and intensity. Mine stopped in a few weeks, and I actually tried to conjure them back up, a bit, for the comfort they brought, however zany.Our heroine does the same: confront and win, though the details differ.MY idea. not death's, not madness' ...MY idea. Baby steps to regaining integrity of the personhood, and a great strong new life. Had my art to the White House last year, so I guess it worked.I was fortunate in that I had little conflict or guilt...my relationship with my late husband and that of our children was great. But I did not want someone new, for a much longer time, than girlfriends whose marriage had been difficult or unhappy.Oddly enough, that our heroine needed to trash the past and make new happiness was in her favor. New men in my life left fast, at first, unable to understand that I needed 'continuum' - not 'trash it and find new'. My late husband and the lives we made as a family were a thing to celebrate and remember happily and so build new happiness and grand new love. I won some great alone time, with my view, at the time, but am glad of it now.One way or another, and unique to each person, the idea is to survive, to heal to resolve, and to get on with the miracle of life INTACT.I especially liked this particular film's career-choice for the widow and the deceased, similar to ours, in real life. Sci/tech minds can be stubborn at dealing with such scenarios, but great at being able to pick it up, focus and purposefully follow it out ! I just felt that the film deserved my true note of praise. And a chance to jot a note that might help a reader.Thanks to all who made and screened 'The Last Sign'elle

Kathy is widow that still remembers his husband, and alcoholic and violent man that died in accident car the same day they broke up. She fells guilty and is not able to rebuild her life. The apparition of a new neighbor, Mark, and the strange things that begin to happen in her life will change this. The story is very typical and has anything new, in most moments, it is very stupid, as things are happening without any logic. Most characters are empty, just a name and a body, with no flavour in them. The film develops with bad attempts of being frightening and the ending is, well, it is easy to do it better. It is a film for Sunday afternoon, when nobody is watching TV. But well, it is not very boring.

I bought this movie because Tim Roth was in it, and Andy MacDowell is usually worth a watch too. Unfortunately Tim Roth has hardly any lines, and the main male character is just awful, his acting almost made me stop the movie a few times, and even Andy MacDowells' acting lets her down at times.Anyway, on to the plot. The movie starts like a regular horror/thriller, we get the arrival of a stranger in the protagonists' life and spooky music and the beginning of supernatural goings on. But then the movie kind of changes direction and comes to an ending more commonly seen in romantic comedys, it's a brave and original idea, but it falls flat and you feel nothing but relief that it's over and possibly a little cheated out of your horror movie.On a positive note, it's probably better than Police Academy 6

Hollywood seems increasingly interested in stories that deal with speaking with the dead, from the paranormal scientific approach to the solace for grief stance to the old-fashioned ghost tales. THE LAST SIGN sort of combines all of these approaches but does it with surprising subtlety and restraint and simply uses such ideas to speak to greater ideals such as forgiveness.Director Douglas Law uses a strong cast to relate the story of a widow Kathy (Andie MacDowell) whose alcoholic, abusive physician husband Jeremy (Tim Roth) recently died in an auto accident. Still living in their large home in Canada, Kathy and her three children are coping fairly well until Kathy begins to receive phone calls at 12:15 AM from someone who remains silent. Out of financial need and out of fear she rents the cottage on the grounds to a handsome young man Marc (Samuel Le Bihan) who has an aura of the strange about him: is it real or imagined? At Kathy's work her boss Isabel (Margot Kidder) keeps her grounded and when Kathy relates seeing images of Jeremy and hearing suspicious sounds both of which cause flashbacks to Jeremy's abusive personality, Isabel encourages Kathy to attempt to speak to the dead and discover the secrets of messages and signs from the departed. Kathy's friend (the chronically underused fine actress Mimi Kuzyk) likewise is supportive and encourages Kathy to accept the attentive advances of Marc. Kathy's confused life calms when she is informed that the last sign that a departed can give is the one emotional trait that has troubled her most. The reveling of that sign from Jeremy and the resultant changes in Kathy and her family's life form a rather tender ending to this successful thriller movie.The surprises come from the quality of performances: Tim Roth even without significant lines creates a wholly believable character; Margot Kidder returns to the screen after her notorious battle with bad publicity and gives an unforgettable performance of a quirky, slightly wacky but comic and caring oddball; Andie MacDowell keeps the difficult character of a widow with mixed reactions to her husband's death in believable focus at all times. The lighting and camera work are superb, for once letting our imagination about ghosts take precedence over that tired use of cartoon computer animation! Not a great movie, but certainly heads above much of the current Hollywood glut of other films in this genre. Worth watching. Grady Harp