I have been fortunate to meet and work with some of the people working from Aberdeen in the North Sea. They’re some of the toughest, bravest people on the planet, willing to go do the darkest depths of the Earth to do their jobs. I never saw the documentary about Chris Lemons’s story, but rest assured if Alex Parkinson’s recreation of that incident is close to the real life tale. Yikes! These guys might be the baddest mf’ers on the planet, up there with ice road truckers and movie reviewers. Ok I tried.
Finn Cole plays Chris, our happy go lucky oil worker, happily living remotely with his soon to be wife Morag (Bobby Rainsbury). This shift takes place during stormy days in the North Sea. Duncan’s other workmates are diving legend of the moment David Yuasa (Simu Liu) and legend of the past Duncan Allock (Woody Harrelson), essentially coaching the boys on one of his last trips. The storms at the top separate Chris from David at the bottom of the North Sea…leaving Chris alone. On emergency oxygen. With 5ish minutes to get to the platform to maybe be rescued.
Similar to the people trying to save Chris Lemons, Last Breath does its job to clock in at 90 minutes. But it barely makes it there. This story is padded flimsily at best, giving Chris a plot device, er, fiancé that will keep him fighting to survive, same as David. That’s 10 minutes I’d rather have just spent on the ship. When are disaster movie makers gonna learn? We don’t need any of this stuff unless the fiance is relevant to the plot (she isn’t), just drop us in the compression chambers and let us learn about these dudes as they chat with each other. Director Alex Parkinson is more a documentarian (he actually directed the 2019 doc, and gave it the same name) than a movie director, forcing him into roles he’s not really done before. In Roland Emmerich or James Cameron hands, Last Breath would be how the audience was feeling as well as poor Chris. However, the movie’s stitched together unevenly, constantly transporting us back and forth above and below the water so we never feel any of the fear as acutely as we’re supposed to. It works in spurts when the action kicks in, using the darkness and shocking images to chilling effect.
Despite that flimsy character development, the cast does their best to service the story. Finn Cole and Simu Liu go for the opposites energy, sensible for the characters as the cynical, world ready David (Liu) prepares the plucky, naive Chris (Cole) for what’s about to happen. Woody is Woody, ably playing sidekick to those two as they do all the crazy physical underwater work. Cliff Curtis and a host of good character actors give the rest of Last Breath respectability when we have to go into the ship and deal with the malfunctions up there. It’s not the most penetrating portrayals I’ve seen on film, but the cast dignifies the story with their commitment, selling the audience on why Chris Lemon’s story is one for the big screen.
As expected, a lot of these guys after this went to work again the next week. I expect nothing less from Aberdeenians, living in one of the strangest places I’ve ever visited. Castles are colleges, churches are bars, homes are businesses. Up is down. Cats are Dogs. MADNESS!!