Opening this week is a promising film from the writer-director of Boyhood, Richard Linklater. Big stars, famed director, so-so movie. Read all bout it below:
Last Flag Flying (Bryan Cranston, Laurence Fishburne, Steve Carell) – Last Flag Flying is yet another example of a movie with a top director and talented stars performing very well in a surprisingly mediocre film.
Set in the early 70s, Last Flag Flying is a slow-moving character study with an improbably premise. Steve Carell, in another serious role, plays Doc Shepherd, a former Vietnam War corpsman who shows up one day at a dive bar owned by Sal Nealon, an old Army vet with whom he served. Nealon is an over-the-top, uncensored burnout who doesn’t recognize his old friend even though Doc served two years in the brig for something the two of them and another friend did.
Doc is there for the worst of reasons. His son recently died in combat, and he wants to bury him at home instead of at Arlington National Cemetery. He is looking for help. Nealon drops everything and goes with Doc to find their old buddy, Richard Mueller, only to find out that he is now a soft-spoken minister rather the hellion he was in his Army days. The three of them then set out on a road trip to recover the body and make funeral arrangements.
The film, contrived as it is, then becomes a buddy flick with serious overtones and an occasional laugh. It never seems real. Rather, it feels like a play, and it might have been better on a live stage. The trio’s interactions are both the strength and the weakness of the movie. Cranston plays the opposite of his restrained Dalton Trumbo character (in Trumbo). Here, he is flamboyant and almost out of control. Carell is totally constrained, playing against type. Fishburne plays Reverend Mueller as reformed, repentant, and reluctant to join the mission to fight the Army’s intent to bury Doc’s boy as a hero in Arlington instead of back home in New Hampshire.
In the end, Last Flag Flying is a character study lacking the intimacy of a live performance but featuring three versatile actors outperforming the story. Oscar nominated writer/director Richard Linklater (Boyhood, Before Sunset, Before Midnight) over-wrote the film, fell in love with his own script, and produced a marathon (2 hours, 4 minutes) heavy in dialogue and light on drama.