The Last Word

Harriet Lauler is a retired advertising executive who has antagonised everyone in her life, stopped speaking to people and now lives alone. Reading her own obituary, she dislikes it and summons Anne, a young writer at the local paper, to have it written to her satisfaction. Anne goes looking for people to talk to and nobody has anything good to say about Harriet. The subject is not death but a person trying to correct her own narrative after the fact. Harriet realises that for the obituary to be good she must first change her life, and the comedy comes out of that belated effort. The form is familiar: a difficult old woman, a young writer, and the distance between them closing. The film does not step outside the template. The best thing about it is Shirley MacLaine. She was in her early eighties at the time and carries the role by playing openly against her own public image. Amanda Seyfried plays the writer. Mark Pellington directs. Anne Heche is in the cast. Who it is for: viewers who like character comedy and MacLaine. Who it is not for: anyone looking for an original narrative; the film is predictable and presses its emotional buttons in order.