War is hell,and so are war films that don’t quite hit the mark. Over the past decade, in the wake of the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I, the film industry around the world has been flush with fresh takes on trench warfare and acts of individual heroism across Europe and abroad. From the United Kingdom’s Academy Award-winning1917to Germany’s Academy Award-winningremake ofAll Quiet on the Western Front, to France’s lesser-knownAu revoir là-haut(See You Up There) and Latvia’sDvēseļu putenis(Blizzard of Souls), it has been thrilling to see each country bring their own history to this tragic war through the film lens.Julien Hayet-Kerknawibrings the Dutch experience during the war to his sophomoric feature filmThe Last Front—to an extent.
While the film is set in the writer-director’s Belgian homeland,it is the primarily English and Scottish cast that ultimately causes the film to fail where its contemporaries succeeded. There is an inherent disconnect between the story being told and the cast’s accents, which break immersion time and time again. Belgium has a thriving film industry, and a plethora of actors who have made names for themselves in the more mainstream Hollywood sphere, which makes it even more confounding thatThe Last Frontopted to tell this innately Belgian story with actors barely trying to mask their native accents, and at worst, employing accents that feel like a mockery of both the Dutch and German languages.
The Last Front
The Last Front is set during the early days of World War I and follows Leonard, a widower and farmer turned war hero, as he leads his family and villagers to safety amidst the chaos of the German invasion of Belgium.
‘The Last Front’ Fails to Confront the True Horrors of War
Set during the early days of World War I,The Last FrontstarsIain Glenas Leonard Lambert, the patriarch of a small family of farmers living just outside of an idyllic Belgian village. The film does well at establishing the Lambert family’s dynamics early on, with Leonard’s son, Adrien’s (James Downie), forbidden love affair with Dr. Janssen’s (Koen De Bouw) sweet-natured daughter Louise (Sasha Luss); the grief Leonard feels about his late wife that colors his reaction to this tender romance; and the sibling dynamics between Adrien and his younger sister Johanna (Emma Dupont). There is a lot to love about the first thirty minutes of the 98-minute film, and perhaps there is some intentionality to this. The script, co-written by the film’s director andKatie Wood, isat its best when it’s focused on the humanity of its characters, and exploringwhythe audience wants to see them survive the conflict we know is on the horizon. Their hopes and dreams are poured into these first handful of minutes, which makes it all the more tragic when they are cut down in their prime.
AsThe Last Frontexplores the Lamberts’ lives,the film also begins to establish a far more dysfunctional family dynamicwithin the German army as Commander Maximillian (Philippe Brenninkmeyer) witnesses what a tragic failure his son, Lieutenant Laurentz (Joe Anderson), is. While this juxtaposition works at a surface level, any further consideration sees it flounder as Laurentz and Maximillian are nothing more than mere caricatures. Even asjustantagonists they lack any depth or purpose outside of being an adversary for Leonard to face. The audience is told how to feel about them, rather than being taken on a journey to arrive at those feelings. It seems that the script saw that it was easier to transform men into cartoonishly violent imbeciles, rather than confront the reality that they weren’t all soulless ghouls, especially not that early on in the war. Other contemporaneous war films have done better at establishing the uncomfortable duality within “the bad guys”without transforming them into comically farcical characters. While trench warfare and the rapid mechanization of armies led to untold horrors during this era, thetruehorrors of World War I was how rapidly “normal men” could descend into barbarism against their fellow man.
‘The Last Front’ Is a Failed Study of “Show, Don’t Tell”
The film’s dialogue is similarly marred with clunky pseudo-philosophical monologues that seem better suited for inspirational quotes in a home office. WhereAll Quiet on the Western Frontexamined the poignant discordbetween nature’s beautiful tragedies and the unnatural chaos of human warfare,The Last Frontdeploys long-winded exposition set against rays of sunlight streaming through trees that do little to push the narrative forward or leave the audience with anything to reckon with.A true study in “show, don’t tell” that fails at every turn.Most egregious is the third-act philosophical treatise given to Sasha Luss to work through, which comes out of nowhere and ultimately undermines the more emotional aspects that her character is working through. Even Glen bookends the film with somber soliloquies about Leonard’s dead wife, which ultimately brings nothing to the central plot of the film, save for adding to the long list of“Lost Lenores”in film.
Hayet-Kerknawi is skilled at finding beauty within the camera lens, butThe Last Frontis a film composed of visually stunning shots thatfall apart as soon as they’re asked to become something more than a beautiful still life. It’s frustrating to see such an excellent (albeit entirely miscast) cast squandered by an aimless script and unremarkable story. Somewhere beneath the haze of self-aggrandizing, there is a compelling human drama at the heart ofThe Last Front, but it skirts around all that compels. WhileThe Last Frontstruggles with its stylistic choices and lack of substance, it is still an entirely watchable andalmostenjoyable war drama. Iain Glen makes for a wonderful lead, even when he’s lacking his caliber of material to work with, and the cast does their best despite feeling out of place in the midst of this subject matter.
The Last Front is a war film that falls short of capturing the full horrors of war.
The Last Frontis in theaters in the U.S. today. Click below for showtimes near you.
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