Movie Review

Appetites left unfulfilled in 'Last Supper'

Grade:D

By Scott Foundas
Film Editor

"The Last Supper" has got to be one of the most preposterous movies to come down the pike since the glory days of Ed Wood, lacking any believable characters or situations, and proceeding so brazenly with ridiculous material as to cause the attentive viewer to manifest a passionate hatred for each passing frame. That's because "The Last Supper" doesn't even have the good humor to recognize how abysmal it is and have some fun with itself.
But first, here's the set-up: a group of oh-so-hip, politically correct graduate students, who bask in the glory of their own unabashedly liberal beliefs, stage a series of Sunday dinners for which they seek a guest whose differing conservative views are believed to have consumed them. During dinner, when the Republican hoopla gets to be a bit much, the hosts simply offer the guest a glass of tainted wine, poisoning him or her to death and subsequently burying them in the backyard's prosperous tomato garden.
As ludicrous as it sounds, that premise might actually have had some darkly comedic possibilities in the proper hands, none of which are realized by first-time feature filmmaker Stacy Title. Rather, she administers would-be comic situations with an unduly heavy hand, working with enough overplayed stereotypes and caricatures to risk offending the very viewers she seeks to enlighten and amuse.
As screenwriter, Title seems to assume that the mere presentation of a series of conservative zealots is inherently funny, but she's terribly wrong. There are no real laughs in all of "The Last Supper," only consistent groans at the idiotic antics of Title's characters, most of which come across in very poor taste. As with the recent "Shallow Grave" and the forthcoming "Loaded," it's difficult to muster any real sympathy for such an incredibly despicable cast of characters or to pay much attention to their murderous exploits. After a while, you don't care who kills who or for what reason, and things become particularly intolerable when these characters begin to fight among themselves.
That's not to say that the ensemble of young, rising stars doesn't give it the old "college" try. The lovely Cameron Diaz is appealing as always, while Jonathan Penner continues to show something of a screen presence as the head of the sardonic group. Penner, who also helped produce "The Last Supper," made his initial impressions in an old TV movie called "Religion, Inc.," in which he co-starred with a young Sandra Bullock and, if he seemed too much like an annoying Jerry Seinfeld clone there, he still hasn't realized his apparent potential to play a great sadistic villain. Broadway star Courtney B. Vance is also fine as always, but like everyone else, his performance fails to displace a misery-inducing scenario.
The entire cast is at the mercy of a very shoddy conception, complete with several genuinely misplaced sex scenes and a certain protruding sense of ineptitude on behalf of the film's technical crew. "The Last Supper" is so dismal, in part, because it looks so bad-- murkily shot on uninteresting sets and in a stilted, mind-numbing manner. The barrage of famous guest stars doesn't help much either, as Title severely compromises the considerable abilities of such talented cameo players as Jason Alexander, Bill Paxton and Charles Durning by lassoing them with buffoonish stereotypes ranging from white supremacy to the anti-vegetarian Christian Right.
The brief contribution of Nora Dunn, the only performer who manages to escape "The Last Supper" unaffected, comes as something of a surprise. Despite a flood of big names, it's Ron Perlman who comes along at the eleventh hour to breathe some most unexpected life into this hellish ordeal with a flashy, bravura turn. He's Title's answer to Rush Limbaugh, an outspoken television personality who unknowingly falls into the groups hands. Only here (roughly the last 10 minutes of the film) does "The Last Supper" show any flash of originality or slyly barbed insight.
Still, the Perlman subplot more or less backfires. By the time he saunters in, Title has given us little reason to have any interest in an overdue finale. Title uses this character as a desperate attempt to shift the focus of her story to a neutral viewpoint from which neither the liberals or the conservatives seem quite the same as before, but only comes across as having total disdain for all characters on all sides. I, for one, knew early on that, if personally invited to the same supper, I would have volunteered to drink the poisoned brew, just to save myself from the unpleasantness of the whole experience.