The Last Winter

THE LAST WINTER (2006) - Sept. 13, 2006 (S)
Jeez, talk about wasted potential. About a team of workers out in the Alaskan tundra who are supposed to build a new oil pipeline, and the weird stuff that starts happening once they get there. Though the film is very well acted (Ron Perlman and James LeGros were particularly good) and generally well made, it's ultimately undone by its overt preachiness (we GET it, global warming is bad) and some really stupid stuff towards the end that may have seemed good on paper... actually no, I can't imagine that it would seem like a good idea anywhere (murderous caribou ghosts? WTF?). There were some moments here and there that I thought were really effective (the scene where the team watches the final video of one of its members, the scene towards the end where Abby and James attempt to communicate via walkie talkie) and the film's look, with its bleakly white, Fargo-esque landscapes, effectively set the proper mood, but... I dunno, it all seemed to be building up to something really creepy, and what it did build up to was just silly (murderous caribou ghosts!). It sucks, because this could have been a great film and it wasn't even a good one. After the film, I overheard a guy calling it a "middling failure." That sounds about right. **