Rent Last Breath (2025)

All the Depth, None of the Pressure - Last Breath review by griggs

Last Breath is a perfectly serviceable but oddly lifeless dramatisation of a harrowing real-life diving incident. Alex Parkinson, who also co-directed the documentary version, brings attention to detail but fails to convey any sense of jeopardy or urgency. Every expected beat is dutifully ticked off, from the futility of the mission to the swelling score, but the tension is sorely lacking. Despite the cast giving it a decent go, the whole thing feels inert, flatly directed and choppily edited. Functional, but far from gripping.

Enjoyable & Predictable Survival/Rescue Thriller - Last Breath review by GI

This review may contain spoilers. This is an enjoyable and gripping survival/rescue thriller based on a true story about a deep sea diver who becomes trapped deep under the North Sea and quickly runs out of oxygen. The ending of course is never in doubt from the get go mainly because this is based on a documentary about the actual event and these narratives invariably have the required happy ending. So it's no plot spoiler to reveal all ends well. And we get there in a reasonably tight runtime which is ample here to tell this tale. A three man dive team are sent down for essential repair work. The leader stays in the diving bell while two of them, Chris (Finn Cole) and Dave (Simu Liu) head down to the seabed. As is often the case a raging storm on the surface causes problems and during their attempt to get back into the bell Chris' air supply cables get trapped and broken and he gets left behind with only ten minutes of air supply left. The film plays out the desperate attempts to get to him. Woody Harrelson plays the team leader and I can't help think he's here to give the film a reasonably big name because he has very little to do. The film adds some flashbacks to add some emotional depth but overall it's a watchable film with an interesting story. The opening shot of the trapped diver in the murky waters is a moving one especially as this is a picture of the real Chris at the moment he was found.

Some good set pieces & acting cannot make up for the extremely uneven tone of this biopic - Last Breath review by Timmy B

The film based on a true story has over the past few decades given us some absolute gems. Whether it is action-orientated like United 93 or Deepwater Horizon, through to biopics like My Left Foot or Oppenheimer, the power of film/media to tell a life story is unparalleled. And speaking of Deepwater Horizon, I did find myself thinking of it a lot whilst watching Last Breath, although sadly due to it being a significantly inferior film to not only it but the documentary it is inspired by.

Chris Lemons is a deep-sea diver who works at depths of upto 1000 feet, maintaining the pipelines in the North Sea. It is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world as, if anything goes wrong, you are trapped on the seabed in a highly pressurised environment with extremely limited help. During one expedition, a combination of total system failure & horrendous weather ends up with Chris cut off from not only the ship but also his "umbilical cord" which is providing his air. There is then a frantic race to get back to rescue him.

In terms of true story material, the amount of potential here is an embarrassment of riches, something which the 2019 documentary beautifully uses to tell it's story. So you'd imagine that, with a decent budget and the same creative team, the film version with professional actors would be a home run.

The film starts off like a facsimile of Deepwater Horizon, with us following Lemons as he says goodbye to his fiancée and gets on board the ship. We are then shown the effort & manpower required to get the maintenance ship out of port and on its way. But whilst Horizon expertly drew us in with observing the different processes & also the horrible subliminal hints that things were about to go very very wrong, Last Breath goes through the motions of this, but then totally abandons it and goes down the standard biopic route.

And whilst the film has some very good moments, there is also a flatness to it which means that parts don't propel the narrative on or simply feel like a scene of exposition.

Partly I think this is due to casting. Woody Harrelson elevates pretty much everything he is in and his role as the grizzled diving-bell veteran is by far the best in the film. And in another piece of good direction, despite the fact he is the biggest name in it, he never takes over scenes, simply allowing his humour or gravitas to lift the story. But despite their efforts, Cole and Liu make extremely little impact. David Yuasa (Liu) is basically portrayed as a stereotypical, robotic Asian man who is highly disciplined with no personality until the last scene when he suddenly takes out a picture & feigns some emotion.

And as Lemons, Cole tries his best, but his acting is never more than 2 chess piece moves away from looking like he has just wandered off a Channel 5 soap. He comes across as simply a good-hearted grunt, with almost no personality. And having watched the documentary, that is emphatically not the case. The scenes with his fiancée are embarrassingly directed, like they are in a Hallmark tear-jerker. And the less said about the end scene on the beach, the better...

But having said all of the above, at times it really did move me. When this film works, it really impacts you. Even simple things like the initial rescue attempt being foiled due to Lemons's forward-thinking before he loses consciousness makes you both cringe with frustration as well as be in awe at his composure as he runs out of air. And the radio chats between the crew, especially the banter with Harrelson, are great.

But there is without doubt a better film that could have been made out of this story. And as much as I was entertained & moved, the feeling of missed opportunity was something that stuck with me. If Paul Greengrass or Peter Berg had been the director, this would have been a 5-star film