"Sean Penn slaughtered!" "Refugee porn!" During the Cannes Film Festival last year, the press panned Sean Penn's new film with startling unanimity and ferocity. That's why we would like to defend the American film star.
Unfortunately, we can't think of many compelling counter arguments. The fact that he means well and that he has directed three good films (The Indian Runner, The Pledge, Into the Wild) doesn't help to make The Last Face any less of a disaster.
The critics in Cannes were particularly merciless about the fact that he uses the horrors of a West-African civil war (the corpses of babies, rape, mutilation, etc.) as the setting and backdrop for the amorous adventures of two western aid workers.
That was indeed an indelicate choice and an underestimation of the speed with which tolerance for postcolonial navel-gazing is drying up. But this would never have been so glaring if the film wasn't generally a bit of a clunker. Toe-curling dialogues ("being inside me is not knowing me") and misplaced artsy cinematography will make every viewer wary. Javier Bardem is dreadful and even the talented Charlize Theron can't save face. One to be forgotten as soon as possible.
> The Last Face. US, dir.: Sean Penn, act.: Javier Bardem, Charlize Theron, Jean Reno.
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