When you're trying to bring attention to an issue, especially the injustices of the world like crimes against humanity taking place in many parts of Africa, try...just try not to make a torrid romance the basis for your opus. Someone should have told Sean Penn this when he embarked on the journey it took to make this movie but I guess he was too in love with his then lady love Charlize Theron who plays the lead actress in the film that he felt compelled to pay tribute to her continent by making a film that he hoped would show he cared. The romance between Theron's (Wren) and Javier Bardem's (Miguel) is so embarrassingly distracting that as the atrocities around they pile on, it is hard to feel any true emotion because when the focus should be on such atrocities, Penn focuses his time and energy on the lovers instead. It was almost like making light of a serious issue. That said, the acting was very good which at least saved the script and effort from falling flat on its face.
Review of The Last Face
The Last Face
(2016)
Brilliant, thought-provoking but offensive all at the same time
22 October 2017
Warning: Spoilers