Last Breath continues the trend of adapting unbelievable true stories to the big screen, and despite a dependable lead trio of Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu and Finn Cole, the film fails to energize the nerve wracking events to create a truly gripping cinematic experience.

 

The story of Chris Lemons features what many would call a miracle, as not even science can explain what transpired on the seafloor 100m below the surface of the North Sea. Only a hypothesis can be provided to explain the unexplainable, which when combined with the events that transpired to result in this miracle, provides the solid base for a film about survival. Having previously been documented in the 2019 documentary Last Breath, which shares the same title and writer-director as this narrative retelling of the events, Chris Lemons’ claustrophobic story of survival makes its way to the big screen featuring the star power of Woody Harrelson and Simu Liu, with up and comer Finn Cole giving a strong performance as Chris. However, while the thematic materials are there for the screenwriters to work with to create a great film, the resulting screenplay does not capture the nail-biting, harrowing story of survival that could have been told given what actually transpired on the seafloor. 

 

When it comes to the performances in Last Breath, there are no complaints with the lead cast of Harrelson, Liu and Cole for giving bad performances. They are all dependable throughout the film, doing exactly what the script requires of them and bring to life the real life individuals they are portraying. Liu and Cole are impressive in the diving sequences, navigating the precise choreography to recreate the events that happened 100m below the surface of the North Sea. But, the script sadly fails them as a leading ensemble, not giving any of them enough dramatic material to work with. The dialogue feels more like exposition and serves the purpose of propelling the film’s story forward as the tragic survival drama unfolds after the first thirty minutes, rather than giving the cast more dramatic materials that helps to develop their characters and inform the drama. 

 

From a technical perspective, the visual and audio experience that Last Breath conjures up is strong. The underwater footage is impressive, capturing the cold and terrifying wasteland below the surface that Chris finds himself fighting for survival in. The sound design conjures up the raging storm on the sea’s surface and the deafening quietness of the sea floor where Chris finds himself stranded and strapped for oxygen. No doubt these two elements will ensure that Last Breath plays incredibly well in a theatrical setting, which is how a survival thriller should be experienced, even if the overall experience of the film plays it too safe.

 

Where the film comes undone is in the screenplay, and its inability to justify this story needing to be told on the big screen. Chris Lemons’ story was previously told by Alex Parkinson in the 2019 documentary of the same name, and while Parkinson also co-wrote and directed this adaptation of the story, it is missing the pressing nature of the actual events. While Lemons was out of oxygen for approximately thirty minutes, the film stretches out the rescue attempt to a runtime of almost fifty minutes, and is unable to maintain the intensity throughout the film’s latter two thirds. Cutting between the surface crew trying to coordinate the rescue and Harrelson’s Duncan Allock and Liu’s Dave Yuasa in the remote underwater vehicle on their way to retrieve Lemons, the pressing nature of the fact that Lemons is without oxygen gets lost in the shuffle.