Hello fellow humans. Beautiful misfits and weirdos. This is Ágoston Hajnal speaking from the wilderness of London in the United Kingdom. I am a film enthusiast with many different passions and curiosities, a Master's degree in Film Studies and another one in journalism. I call this podcast my film odyssey.
If you are listening to this right now I'm glad we have bumped into each other in this over-saturated landscape of sound. Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy.
Episode five is about an obscure and little-seen 2008 thriller The Last Lullaby. It was directed by Jeffrey Goodman and starred the late Tom Sizemore. This episode is dedicated to his memory. The soundscapes and sound effects used here have been sourced from www.zapsplat.com. Without further ado here it goes...
Based on Max Allen Collins' short story A Matter of Principal, adapted by Collins and Peter Biegen, The Last Lullaby is an intriguing tale of loss and redemption. While the original protagonist Quarry was a Vietnam veteran contract killer with noirish adventures in the '70s, this incarnation is clearly set in the late 2000s making this ex-marine more likely the veteran of the Gulf War.
The tale focuses on the now-retired hitman, Price, lost in the world and predestined to repeat his violent ways as he lurks in the night looking for meaning and unable to sleep.
As he accepts a last assignment from a wealthy businessman to kill Sarah, a librarian with a dark past and insomnia mirroring his own predicament, an ephemeral possibility of human connection begins to haunt him and change him.
Jeffrey Goodman, who sadly has not directed a feature film since this outing in 2008, controls the tone with remarkable assuredness. Unlike most first-time directors, and much like Price, he rarely tips his hand, with a style that is almost invisible. The calm surface is bubbling with tension underneath, violent and sometimes romantic, barely alleviated by the open spaces of nature, with the camera only moving when necessary. The grey and sleepy towns and surrounding large forests of the American Midwest tell tales of seemingly insignificant and quiet lives with restlessness and desperation at their core. This is expressed by the minimalist piano guitar and synth score of composer Ben Lovett that takes you on a mental journey full of questions.
A swim in a lake or a pool away from everyone and everything is the only way to slow down the racing mind. The two-lane blacktop is constantly calling. Where to is uncertain, but the engine must run, and movement must be made just to keep up the illusion that you are going somewhere.
Controversial actor Tom Sizemore who has built a career in the 90s out of playing bombastic characters once again plays a killer and criminal but takes a measured, laconic approach where his face and body language are allowed to do most of the talking. His magnetism lies in achieving more by doing less. He convincingly blends into his surroundings and disappears. His world-weariness paints a picture of a man who is lonely yet detached from his own pain and everyone else’s. As embodied by Sizemore, there is a shiftiness and ferociousness to Price's energy, breaking with sanitized portrayals of bad men by handsome and sensitive Hollywood leading men. He appears truly dangerous, and filthy, with his humanity at its last tether, an anti-hero, a magnet for trouble. His hawk-like eyes stalk newer and newer prey. Still, it's not the killing he enjoys with the smile of an alligator but being good at it. This makes the vulnerability he gradually reveals all the more surprising.
The scene of Jack and Sarah's first meeting is also marked by violence. Price improvises the route of winning the trust of his mark by beating up and threatening her abusive ex-boyfriend. But it is he who becomes a mark as he starts to develop feelings he did not think he could have, first by watching her, then being with her in the evening shade.
The Last Lullaby transforms into a more complex film as it becomes as much about the mark as the hitman. While Jack is intriguing due to the still flickering light in his soul, Sarah reveals a lifetime of fear, trauma, and surprising resourcefulness behind her misleading girl next door exterior. Despite occasionally being settled with some on-the-nose dialogue, Sasha Alexander completely convinces as a rare character sketched beyond the trappings of the noir genre. Her latent femme fatale energies freely mix with the damsel part while exhibiting her own point of view, both fatalistic and hopeful for a fresh start. If you walk down the street, you may not even notice her but get curious once you talk to her.
Could repeating the same mistakes, but for reasons of the heart paradoxically lead to salvation? No higher power is watching to send a sign, this is all their doing. The roles of hunter and prey have become indistinguishable. The questions remain and the road is waiting.
There is a world of difference between being a one or being a two.
Outro: Hello fellow humanoids! True originals. If you are still listening or just joining us now I am Ágoston Hajnal and this is my film odyssey. Please check out my website for more content. It is www.agostonsfilmodyssey.com. That is A.G.O.S.T.O.N. You can also follow me on Instagram, X, Facebook, and Tumblr, links are in the description. Thank you for coming with me on this journey and I hope to see you next time.
