December 18: Last Call (2002)

So today was the company holiday party and we had a relatively good time. Afterwards I went out shopping for last minute gifts and before I knew it, the day was practically gone. It's 10:45 pm, so this is going to be a short entry.

I've been a fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald's writing since I got turned on to his work when I was in high school. I had a wicked crush on a slightly older woman -- she was in college! -- and we did a play together that happened to be set in the 1920s. The director had suggested we read Fitzgerald short stories and so ... I was hooked. I've read a number of biographies, all his novels, most of the short stories, and a lot of related materials. And I've tried to watch whatever biographical films that were made, however terrible.

Which brings me to Last Call, a movies that premiered on Showtime in 2002. I just got around to watching it on disc and I have to say that it was rather disappointing. It's based on a true story set in the writer's waning days when he was trying to write The Last Tycoon.

Although purportedly about Fitzgerald (played by Jeremy Irons -- who seemed to me to be coasting through the job), the movie really is the story of Frances Kroll (Neve Campbell), a naive young woman who worked as the writer's secretary. Kroll, of course, later wrote a book and that served as the basis of this drama, written and directed by Henry Bromell. I haven't seen Bromell's debut feature Panic (2000) but I've read fairly good things about it. Bromell went on to work on several TV series, including Showtime's Brotherhood, which I'll get to in another post (after I've finished watching the 3rd season).

Last Call terribly disappointed me. It's a minor film about a fairly important writer and it fails to make him come alive. Sissy Spacek shows up as his wife Zelda, a ghostly figment of the fevered imagination of a dissolute writer. For some reason, Spacek earned an Emmy nomination for this performance which is not one of her best. (She lost the award to Stockard Channing playing Judy Shepard in The Matthew Shepard Story.)

The story is filled with cliches: of course Frances is enamored of Scott. Of course, he makes coarse remarks about her writing. Of course, they come to a detente. It's fairly predictable and somewhat boring. Irons and Campbell do not seem to connect at all, as if they are acting in separate films. Campbell tries hard to create a full-bodied character and she has a few affecting scenes, particularly with Paul Hecht as her father.

There's really yet to be a decent biography of Fitzgerald but his work defies filming (despite several attempts). He may be one of those writers whose novels and life is best left to books.

Rating:   D+