The Last Son

• Directed by Tim Sutton
• September 6, 2021 (Deauville American Film Festival) / December 10, 2021 (US)

A man sets on a bloody path to kill all of his bastard children after being cursed by a Native American shaman that his son will be the one to end his life.

If you go into The Last Son expecting something with a more significant supernatural edge you will be disappointed. The prophecy certainly plays into the narrative but that’s only to keep our cursed man from getting killed and being able to face off against impossible odds rather than much else. Beyond explaining why he can walk away it does little else. In the context of the story it comes and goes yet it is what gets the ball rolling. The story largely comes off as s killer killing with the occasional reminder that there is a prophecy and that is why he kills.

Apparently our main villain of Isaac LeMay played by Sam Worthington looking a lot like Antonio Banderas was firing bullets and hitting the mark left and right with every prostitute he encountered going through the West. I don’t think even Wilt Chamberlain was as potent as this guy appears to have been. But I digress..

Worthington growls and grumbles through much of the movie and gives an angry hillbilly stare but does little to build a character or make him feel like threat. We should be worried about him because he is a killer, but the story or Worthington do little to make him a character-even a shallow one.

You would think this story would be about LeMay facing off against his son Cal (Colson “Machine Gun Kelly” Baker) but truthfully Cal is a relatively minor character in comparison to U.S. Marshal Solomon (Thomas Jane). Solomon becomes important to the story when he is hired by a group of men (calling them a posse might be a stretch) who are looking for LeMay because he is killing his sons.

And Solomon is actually the most interesting character in the whole movie. His character was raised by Cheyenne after being discovered following the murder of his family. Who murdered the family? Not really important. Thomas Jane gives the character a complex and dark edge that the others really lack.

Solomon is looking for the a man that stole a gatling gun from the army who in a lucky coinkydink is Cal who took it to protect himself from his dad. I’m a little confused because it seems like Cal wasn’t necessarily aware of what was going on with his dad until later in the movie, yet he went after the gun as the ultimate form of protection. So at what point did he or anybody else figure out what was going on? There are points when the characters talk like this prophecy and LeMay’s actions are common knowledge yet others where it comes off as a complete unknown.

Heather Graham plays Anna who is Cal’s mother and one of many prostitutes LeMay hit the mark with. I’m pretty certain there’s been more than one potential father involved with her which begs the question how is she sure that her son is his son? There’s a mention of a mark on the neck but what that mark is I don’t know. They never show it and they never describe it and it’s a fairly important item given what paternity means in this movie. You would think that they could flesh that out a bit.

There is a lot of dark and brooding going on in this movie as well as heavy dialogue intended to sound deep and meaningful, but everything is really kind of shallow. And in execution it looks like they are trying to mimic Quentin Tarantino and either The Hateful Eight or Django Unchained but never really get to either. Not that I am encouraging them.

The Last Son is a movie that wants to be deep and important and edgy but is none of that. Thomas Jane was the best performer here and his character wasn’t even supposed to be the main character. The narrative is kind of slow and plodding with motivations poorly expressed in the film. People are doing what they’re supposed to be doing. Why they are doing it never really becomes the focus. It’s just the role they’re given. And what the twist ending will be is clear long before it ever comes.

While it is not explicitly stated, you will know when you see it and worse it completely goes against all given in story information. It is no another way of viewing what has been stated but rather a complete contradiction. But it is a very predictable contradiction.

The Last Son is an interesting idea that is fumbled in its execution. The characters and the narrative are not particularly well done. This is one of those things you can just skip.