Rent The Last Tree (2019)

Coming of Age - The Last Tree review by CP Customer

Strange film about a young boy fostered out by his mother to a lady in rural Lincolnshire, where he is having a good life doing well at school and is then taken back by his mother to live with her in London.  There he has to adjust to life in a high rise tower block, especially as his mother is a nurse working shifts etc.  Gradually falls in with a strange crowd which has an effect on his school work etc leading to a fall out and a reconciliation with his natural father in Africa.  Watchable but not one I could recommend!

Interesting but flawed - The Last Tree review by AER

The Last Tree gets off to a bumpy start with depictions of golden childhood, over sentimentalised by the filmmaker with application of heavily filtered sunny day scenes of play, a terrible score and thin characterisation. Then it gets better, much better. I can't fault the actors a jot, everybody in this film is brilliant, yet the tale of a Ghanaian boy, Femi, growing up in the UK struggles to find its feet for the first 15 minutes. It's a shame that the relationship between Femi and his foster parent, Mary (Denise Black) isn't developed enough. However, after Femi returns home to London with his birth mother the film gains traction and began to interest me. The box of tricks was still in full-effect, and at times I wished the filmmaker had more trust in her cast's abilities, and her script to let them do the work. Instead of trying to be the British version of Moonlight, this could have been so much more with better editing and less emphasis on the awkward window dressing. 

5/10 

Excellent Social Drama - The Last Tree review by GI

A compassionate and quite moving social drama about a young boy, Femi (Tai Golding), who is of Nigerian background, growing up in foster care in rural Lincolnshire. His life is idyllic and he has a host of friends, does well at school and has a loving foster mother. But then his mother Yinka (Gbemisola Ikumelo) arrives from London to take him home. Femi is thrust into the alien environment of inner London where he is confused and isolated, beaten by his mother and generally becomes withdrawn. The film then fast forwards to Femi (now Samuel Adewunmi) as a teenager, still feeling adrift in the world where he is torn between the overtures of the local gang leader and the patience and encouragement of his teacher. This is told in a profound and moving style confidently photographed and with an interesting use of sound that highlights Femi's confusion and loneliness. The performances are all powerful and at times the s tory is heart wrenching but it's a clever film highlighting the experience of young people whose potential is constantly exposed to danger.