The Last Supper (1995)
Review by Doc Ezra
Film:
DVD:

Written by Dan Rosen
Directed by Stacy Title
Starring Cameron Diaz, Ron Eldard, Annabeth Gish, Jonathan Penner, Courtney B. Vance, Jason Alexander, Charles Durning, Mark Harmon, Bill Paxton, and Ron Perlman

Features:

• Trailers
  

Released by: Columbia-Tristar.
Rating: R
Region: 1
Anamorphic: Yes

My Advice: Rent it.

Take five left-wing grad students, throw them in a house in the heartlands together, and hold a special dinner every Sunday where they can talk and help each other’s privileged righteous indignation build to a near frenzy. The housemates, despite having such a similar viewpoint, have plenty of nit-picking details to argue about over pasta, though. Things get significantly more interesting when a redneck trucker (Paxton) stops by one night, says lots about his hatred for commie pinko liberals, and accidentally ends up dead. Rather than do the sane thing and report the details to the powers that be, the quintet decide to start killing right-wing extremists on purpose. Selectively inviting them over for dinner, ostensibly for some sort of symposium of opposing views, they poison the wine, drag the bodies into the backyard, plant some tomatoes over 'em, and use the resultant crop for pasta sauce at their next murder.

This leads to a frenzy of raw nerves mixed liberally with self-congratulation on the part of the grad students, who are certain they are doing the world a favor by removing those with "narrow minds." The planned masterstroke of the cabal of privileged trust-fund killers is Norman Arbuthnot (Perlman), a radio talk-show celebrity reminiscent of a certain bloated gasbag of the real world. If the real-live equivalent made half as much sense as Arbuthnot's arguments in favor of free speech, he'd be significantly less annoying. His confrontation with the housemates opens their eyes to the dangerously slippery slope upon which they have placed themselves by selecting who gets the right to an opinion.

The Last Supper is an solid black comedy and satire of the cloistered mindview so common to academia. While opening up with the housemates portrayed as crusaders for a better world, it rapidly becomes evident that the five principles are no more ethical, intelligent, or worthy of a platform than their victims (well, except for Paxton's trucker, who needed to be killed regardless). The characters are all just barely on the well-developed side of stereotypes, painted thick enough to give them some personality, but thin enough to make the archetypes recognizable. It's hard to say whether or not this is intentional, and I'm inclined to think it isn't. The most significant problem with the film is that it's not as clever as it thinks it is, and therefore contains all the subtlety of being smashed over the head repeatedly with a croquet mallet. A lighter touch (perhaps a more experienced director?) could have resulted in a wonderfully subtle satirical comedy that would hold up to repeated scrutiny. As it stands, the film rings hollow and dated less than a decade after its release.

The ending of the film is on some levels very satisfying, but throws some serious doubt onto the movie's intended "message" (such as it has one). While the group slides deeper and deeper towards a frightening extremism of their own, the film seems to want to steer them back towards a more moderate viewpoint, advocating that perhaps the truth can be found in the middle. Even Perlman's excellent monologue backs this up. Unfortunately, the resolution of the picture seems to urge those with ridiculously extreme left-wing viewpoints (or what passes for them in this country) to stick to their guns without an ounce of compromise, less the treacherous right destroy them. This is pathetic and stupid on its face, and smacks of a filmmaker without enough conviction in their personal politics to leave it off the screen. Your mileage may vary.

The DVD looks and sounds excellent, but contains no extras worth mentioning. I'd have liked to hear some commentary by a few of the major players (though I'm sure Cameron Diaz is too busy making money as an Angel to go slumming with her roots), and most importantly, I'd like to hear the director's take on the picture, as I may be misreading intentions and shorting the film on respect that it deserves. As the disc stands, however, it merits a rental and nothing more. And if you're easily irritated by whiny political thinkers that never actually take any action, then you'll be wanting to claw someone's eyeballs out before the halfway point rolls around. You were warned.