Last Breath review - A by the numbers disaster film
When I searched what the hardest job in the world was on Google, my first result was a book with that title about the American Presidency. A position with its challenges for sure, but it seems like a meagre position in comparison to the dangers of the deep-sea divers in Last Breath. Where divers travel to depths of 1000 feet for up to six hours to conduct critical repairs. Numbers that even as a diver feel overwhelmingly staggering. There can’t be many jobs harder than this.
The film, directed by Alex Parkinson, is an adaptation of his 2018 documentary. Set off the coast of Aberdeen, it follows a deep-sea diving crew on a regular repair job. Mending a piece of pipework in order to maintain the gas line, which is key to keeping families warm over the winter. However, when in stormy conditions, the umbilical cord connecting one of the divers to the ship snaps, meaning new member Chris (Finn Cole) has 10 minutes of emergency oxygen left to survive off. It is up to the remaining crew including Dave (Simu Liu) and Duncan (Woody Harrelson) to recover Chris.
Last Breath is a solid disaster film, akin to Peter Berg’s collaborations with Mark Wahlberg. It takes a tense, gripping but visually dark true story and brings life to it. Whilst it does fall into Hollywood grandeur at times it has a strong elongated second act making it a compelling 90 minutes.
The film is competently made with great use of sound mixing, every breath echoing in the vacuum of the deep sea, with a strong score that knows when to come in and accentuate a moment. The film does a good job of setting the dangers of the profession. Likewise, Harrelson and Liu bring a Hollywood flair. Harrelson plays a retiring diver on his last rotation with his typical swagger. Whilst Liu plays the cold, serious type with just enough charisma.
The film is also strong in its procedural elements. How it conveys the difficulties of the job. The divers are placed into metal shells and clamped shut, so they can adjust to the atmospheric pressure. Any exposure to the outside world will mean instant death. They then are lowered to the seabed, where Duncan lowers the two-diver team, with him being the only communication with the divers and the ship up above. Whilst every safety measure is put in place, there is a palpable sense of danger.
However, the road is a little bumpy. Particularly early on the two tangential plots of on the surface and under the sea are poorly edited together, making it hard to work out who is doing what at times. Nevertheless, Last Breath nails the disaster genre brief, going along with the tropes, but in an effective way. Like a swell in the sea, it sweeps you up in the emotions along the way.