Last Breath Review: Seems Like a Good Idea for a Movie But Isn't

Yahoo

07-03-2025

HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT) – Last Breath seems like a good idea for a movie because of how compelling and miraculous its story is, but the actual result is less dramatically interesting than what it must have been like to live through the events.
Directed by Alex Parkinson, Last Breath tells the true story of a group of deep-sea divers who journey to the seabed to maintain a gas pipeline. However, a tragic accident leaves one of the divers stuck and the umbilical that provides him oxygen is severed, leaving him alone, stranded, and running out of oxygen. Together the remaining divers and the crew aboard their ship must rescue their colleague. Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu, and Finn Cole play the divers.
That subject seems compelling, and while it's happening, it's natural to think that it would make a great movie. In fact, Last Breath (2025) is the dramatized remake of Last Breath (2019), a critically acclaimed documentary that uses footage from the real events.
However, because so much of the drama in Last Breath is in the waiting and so much of the rescue attempt involves some jargon that is somewhat dense, the actual film is less compelling. Last Breath reminded me a lot of 127 Hours (2010), a Danny Boyle-directed story of James Franco's character who gets his hand stuck underneath a rock. Boyle is able to make the waiting – the time between the accident and the story's harrowing solution – compelling and interesting with his frenetic camerawork and a few flashbacks.
Similarly, Parkinson uses a few flashbacks, but he's not near as good a director as Danny Boyle. So most of the movie's drama is in a ticking clock or a story rife with technical jargon that isn't that dramatic without the audience being as familiar with the mechanics as the characters are. For example, in order to accomplish the rescue, they have to rewire a navigation system. The character's solution to the problem is probably incredibly impressive and clever, but without the same framework or understanding of the system, it's hard to have a strong emotional reaction to what's on the screen.
While Last Breath doesn't work as a suspense film, that doesn't mean that there aren't some good, suspenseful sequences particularly toward the end and at the very beginning when the character gets lost. The performances are all adequate; there isn't much exploration of character depth or individualized personalities beyond a few broad strokes.
Ultimately, Last Breath is an acceptable thriller that would have been better served as either a short film or as the documentary. It may have seemed like a compelling movie at the time, but its drama doesn't translate particularly well.
Eyewitness News. Everywhere you are.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.