Peereddi
I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.
Dynamixor
The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
Plustown
A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.
VideoEmbolism
Before Johnathan Demme was directing pseudo intellectual crap like "Silence of the Lambs" and socially relevant crap like "Philadelphia" he made this great movie about a burnt out CIA agent who may be going crazy, or may be the target of a psycho killer, or may be the last loose end on the bad side of a career with an organization that has too many secrets to lose. Roy Scheider plays this character who, in a state of recovery, after suffering a nervous break-down from seeing his wife gunned down becomes convinced that his own spy agency is trying to kill him because he is a liability revolving around a politically motivated serial killer who may have targeted him as the next victim for reasons he can only guess at. Then there's the Jewish conspiracy involving the physical abuse of whores. Because Jews hate whores right? Or something like that. Great movie! Lots of suspense, twists and turns, killings, paranoia, great filmmaking, exposing horrifying history that reveal people losing their humanity, identity and individuality by either being a victim of or thriving off of the human race defined by cultures, organizations and finance/power ambition based collectives that evolve through time into nothing more than the despicable scum-sucking power hungry monsters they try to convince themselves, and others, they aren't, and ultimately failing at, through lies and deceit masquerading as the innocence they lost long ago. Watch it and be entertained!
TedMichaelMor
"Last Embrace" deserves its bad reviews. Imitation of Alfred Hitchcock requires more than respect and deep appreciation. The Miklos Rozsa score does sometimes intrude even though he often wrote film noir scores and a famous score for Mr. Hitchcock that the director did not like. Sometimes the score works extraordinarily well. Well, this is not a Hitchcock film but still, I like this movie. It imitates but also foreshadows director Demme's later great terror oriented mysteries.Mr. Demme is not mechanical or rigid in his use of Hitchcock devices and themes. This film narrative engages one on its own terms.The casting is particularly effective. The late Janet Margolin enriches the film and counts in part for my high score.Roy Scheider, as always, has immense presence Locations in New York encase a time when the city looked particularly rundown and that somehow defines an effective iconography though I have no idea why. This movie deserves closer analysis than this but others probably could do that more effectively than I can at the moment. I very much appreciate the review here by Dorian Tenore-Bartilucci.
jotix100
Having watched an interesting documentary recently, "Dial H for Hitchcock", it's clear to see how Jonathan Demme was influenced by the master himself. His admiration for the master is evident, yet, in spite of everything, Mr. Demme's "Last Embrace" was a surprise nonetheless. "Last Embrace" was one of his first films and it sort of showed the trajectory of Jonathan Demme as a film director would follow. If you haven't seen the film, please stop reading here.When Harry Hannan's wife is tragically killed, his life begins to unravel. Harry spends some time in a sanatorium trying to get himself together. Unfortunately, whoever wanted him put away is still much in evidence as his presence is felt right at the station where Harry is trying to board the train back home to Manhattan.Harry is taken aback to find Ellie living in his apartment, something he had no idea was happening. It's only fitting with films of this genre that Harry will fall for the beautiful young woman who apparently seems to be trying to help him solve the puzzle about a cryptic death threat he has received at home.Harry with the help of Sam Urdell, starts investigating about the meaning of the strange message he got. Urdell's connection within the Jewish community also unravels another conspiracy that Harry knew nothing about. The final episode involves going through the tunnels where visitors must enter in order to see real close the Falls at Niagara. Even before that there's also a great scene involving Harry's former brother-in-law in a tower at Princeton, which kept reminding us of "Vertigo".Roy Scheider makes an intense Harry. In fact, Mr. Scheider at the time this film was made, was at the height of his career and he clearly shows why he was an excellent actor. The beautiful Janet Margolin plays Ellie, a woman who is too good to be true when we first meet her, but we have no clue as to what she is capable of doing. The great Sam Levene is seen as Sam Urdell, who befriends Harry and is instrumental in getting to the bottom of this mystery. In supporting roles some familiar faces who went to do much better work later. Christopher Walken, Mandy Patinkin, Jacqueline Brookes, Marcia Rodd, Charles Napier, among others are seen in the film.Jonathan Demme proved he was a talent that would go to bigger and better things even then.
dphelan-1
This is one of Janet Margolin's best performances and I am reminded of how I miss seeing her in films. She certainly plays a complex character here. Her metamorphosis in one scene in particular is dramatic. Reuniting her with John Glover was great too. Even though they shared no real scenes in Annie Hall, I remember them both in that and was pleased to see each in Last Embrace. Glover is still going strong. The plot of this Hitchcockian thriller is multidimensional and fresh. I think Demme ( not one of my favorites) did a great job and the famous finale at Niagara Falls is reminiscent of NIAGARA without really aping it. This is the film that made want to ride the Maid of the Mist. And the one I always remember when I miss Janet Margolin.
