A disgraced ex-cop seeks solace by moving to the woods, but his quiet life ends when a private eye recruits him to investigate a murder.
Alastair Pinch (Mel Gibson) is an eccentric T.V. star whose wife was recently murdered in their Hollywood home. All eyes are on him as the murder suspect, but when Lorena Nascimento (Morena Baccarin) turns up on the doorstep of her ex-boyfriend, Charlie Waldo (Charlie Hunnam), a disgraced former LAPD detective, and asks for his help with the case as she thinks Alastair might be innocent, he is quick to turn the job down as he wants to continue living his minimalist life in the woods. Soon after that, he is visited by a gang from Los Angeles who demand a flash drive they claim Lorena left with him that has some incriminating information on it in regards to the case, but he insists he knows nothing about it.
When he receives word that Lorena is dead, he promptly changes his mind and makes his way to Los Angeles and takes on the case at the behest of Alastair’s agent, Wilson Sikorsky (Rupert Friend), who states that Charlie was one of the best police detectives before his fall from grace, and if anybody can solve the case, Charlie is the guy. Now that Lorena’s death is tied in directly with Alastair Pinch, he becomes acquainted with the actor, an English snob who sports a Geraldo-Rivera-style mustache, not to mention his outlandish, madcap behavior, akin to the undisciplined and mischievous antics of the “Carry On” series of the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s.
Charlie begins interviewing people in Alastair’s life and finds himself engaged in all sorts of predicaments, especially when he needs to talk to the Los Angeles Police Department, whom he previously worked for, but just when he thinks he is about to crack the case wide open, he receives a mysterious text from Lorena’s phone number. Not knowing if it is her or someone else on the other end, he is given instructions on how to find the flash drive, the one the gang who visited him earlier wanted. When he views the information on it, he finds himself being watched and observed by strangers from all walks of life, obviously wanting the flash drive for themselves.
As he begins narrowing down the list of suspects, ranging from wannabe gangsters, budding poets, Russian boxers, and Canadian Eskimos (Inuinnaq), slowly but surely, he arrives at a conclusion that not even he could have imagined, but when he confronts said perpetrator, he presents his verdict, only for them to bulldoze their way past him and escape in their car. Now he must follow in hot pursuit if he is to solve the case and get back to his minimalist life in the middle of nowhere.
“Last Looks” never takes itself too seriously, and that’s a good thing; otherwise, it could have come across as pretentious and self-indulgent. Had the film gone down that road, it would never have been as enjoyable and playful as it currently is. Mel Gibson has a blast playing a pretentious yet big-hearted one-time Royal Shakespeare Company thespian who absorbs alcohol as fish take in water and lives for his young daughter. When we are first introduced to Charlie Hunnam, he comes off as a homeless person living in a trailer. Still, his character, obviously deliberately, comes back to life as he visits his old haunts and gets the adrenaline pumping again.
The film also boasts a who’s who of Hollywood talent; Morena Baccarin, Lucy Fry, Rupert Friend, Dominic Monaghan, Clancy Brown, Method Man, and many others, and while their appearances amount to nothing more than glorified cameos, Gibson and Hunnam are the stars here, and the film never lets us forget it. “Last Looks” won’t go down in the annals of Hollywood history as a sweeping city epic, showcasing the criminal underbelly of the City of Angels like “Chinatown,” “L.A. Confidential,” or “Heat,” but it never aspires to, it is simply a fun way to pass two hours, and if you’re in the mood to be entertained, sit back and enjoy!
Available on Blu-ray and DVD on April 12th
