The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Don’t let the presence of the long-list of award-winning actors such as the beautiful and always capable Charlize Theron and the exceptionally talented Javier Bardem, fool you into thinking that The Last Face – directed by Sean Penn – is anything else other than exhausting. Positioning itself as something between a sappy romantic story and a political war-drama, it’s almost shocking to see just how wrong of a turn this is for the career for the acclaimed director whose movie lacks clarity and depth that it needs.

The story is centred on Dr. Wren Peterson (Theron); a globe-trotting activist and the director of her late father’s medical aid agency who goes on to recall her time working as a doctor in the turbulent region of West Africa.  Told mainly through flashbacks, she goes on to talk about her experience on the field, expressing her dismay at the suffering she witnessed before eventually coming up to the part where she meets and falls in love with fellow physician, Dr. Miguel Leon (Bardem).

Having dedicated most of his life to helping those in need, Miguel has significant experience on the field and the two, after experiencing some sticky situations together, are quick to become lovers.  However, their relationship is soon thwarted by continuous arguments, mainly involving issues of morality and unanswerable questions of the principles of war, which soon finds the star-crossed lovers going their separate ways.

 There are so many aspects of the movie – including laughable dialogue, self-righteous preludes, choppy editing and not to mention the poor performances from everyone involved – which are wrong on so many levels that it makes it awfully difficult for one to dig out what is right or even remotely watchable. Shot through a dream-like lens and with very little logic or clarity to back up its flimsy script, the bloodshed, the misery and the overall suffering of war-torn countries like Sierra Leone, Liberia and South Sudan, are shamelessly used here as a backdrop – as opposed to a premise that was worth exploring – in order to provide a tragic setting for a romantic story which fails to ignite.

Jumping from country to country, it’s often difficult to follow what’s happening on screen, with the erratic pacing adding nothing but confusion as to where the story is and where it could be possibly going.  Tainted by some of the worst dialogue ever written, it’s impossible to connect to the characters on screen who, despite their best efforts and good looks, can’t, for the life of them, find a way to lift the story out of the gutter.