Click here to copy URL

The Last Word

2017

Mark Pellington

Shirley MacLaine, Amanda Seyfried, Anne Heche, Thomas Sadoski ...

5.4

530

Comedy Harriett is a retired businesswoman who tries to control everything around her. When she decides to write her own obituary, a young journalist takes up the task of finding out the truth resulting in a life-altering friendship.

	Author	Review
United States	David Rooney The Hollywood Reporter	"[A] predictable comedy about an unapologetic old white curmudgeon (...) [that drafts] Shirley MacLaine to keep audiences in her barbed corner while we wait for her inevitable bittersweet humanization."	NEU
United States	Owen Gleiberman Variety	"[It] is an eager assemblage of quasi-fake setups and two-stroke characters."	NEG
United Kingdom	Tim Grierson Screendaily	"Offering predictably heartfelt messages about seizing the day, 'The Last Word' can be very sweet and funny, but its lightness starts to feel cloying rather than ebullient."	NEU
United States	Manohla Dargis The New York Times	"A sweet-and-sour dramatic comedy that would be unbearable without [Shirley MacLaine]"	NEU
United States	Joe McGovern Entertainment Weekly	"MacLaine (...) is shoehorned into playing a character that’s not just a tenth as dimensional and complex than Aurora Greenway (from Terms) or Doris Mann (from Postcards). Harriet’s also a disposable bore next to MacLaine herself"	NEG
United States	Stephen Whitty New York Daily News	"An idiotic, DOA waste of Shirley MacLaine's talent"	NEG
United States	Glenn Kenny rogerebert.com	"The movie progresses pretty precisely along the lines its premise suggests (...) It goes out of its way to hit 'beats' that it presumes will be satisfying to a mainstream audience (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"	NEU
United States	Colin Covert Seattle Times	"The film is a misuse of the Oscar-winning star’s talent and a waste of our time. But she does it with flair (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"	NEU

Return to movie

We encourage you to check the reviews' original sources. Intellectual property rights of these reviews belong to their authors and/or the correspondent media from which they have been extracted. If you'd like to help us to add more reviews to your favorite movies, just send us a message.