Get the latest gossip
‘The Last Journey’ Review: Sweden’s International Oscar Submission Is a Humorous and Heartbreaking Documentary
Documentary 'The Last Journey' is Sweden's Oscar entry, telling the story of a retired teacher who road-trips to France with his son.
In 2008, when the still-vital Lars retired from teaching high school French in his hometown of Köping at the age of 66, he was looking forward to a productive “ troisième âge.” But by 2022, he’s afflicted by mysterious pains and barely wants to get up from his comfortable armchair. But sometimes Filip goes too far in trying to stage-manage them, as in an awkward scene where he interrupts his father and their elderly French guests while they are enumerating who of their acquaintance is ill and who has died, to try and get him to recount an old story about Harry Belafonte with the flair he remembers. A buoyant score by Christian Olsson and the incorporation of French language songs by Lar’s favorites Jacques Brel and Georges Brassens suits the material and makes for pleasant listening.
Or read this on Variety
