LAST LOOKS
A captivating detective story whose strong language limits its audience.
Should You Watch It?
LAST LOOKS is an unusually captivating modern detective story. Its hardboiled style, lively plot, amusing characters, and excellent performances give it real entertainment value. Charlie Hunnam is excellent as the detective, while Mel Gibson brings both humor and feeling to an alcoholic actor who loves his young daughter.
The movie also has positive moral elements. Its detective pursues truth and justice through a corrupt world, and the accused actor’s decision to stop drinking so he can devote himself to his daughter gives the story a welcome note of responsibility.
But the language is relentless. At least 119 obscenities, many of them strong, along with sexual immorality, substantially diminish the movie’s moral content. Adults who can weigh those concerns may find a rewarding mystery; families and younger viewers should choose something else.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESCharlie Waldo is an off-the-grid former police detective living in a rundown trailer near the woods outside Los Angeles. When his former girlfriend asks him to help an alcoholic British television actor accused of murdering his wife, Waldo initially refuses.
Then thugs warn him away from the case, his former girlfriend disappears, and he travels to Hollywood. There, he investigates the murder while moving among television executives, wealthy suspects, professional criminals, and a little girl who quickly takes a liking to him.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars means this is a highly entertaining film with significant content problems. LAST LOOKS has a captivating, lively, amusing plot and many of the familiar stylistic touches and enjoyable stereotypes of hardboiled detective fiction.
The characters are consistently fun to watch. Charlie Hunnam does an excellent job portraying Waldo, and the rest of the cast is also excellent. Mel Gibson gives a fun and even moving performance as the irascible alcoholic actor who loves his young daughter.
The heavy foul language is the film’s major weakness. The many gratuitous “f” words and other strong profanities spoil an otherwise well-acted and enjoyable detective story.
The Worldview
LAST LOOKS presents a light moral worldview centered on a detective trying to uncover a murderer and find some semblance of justice in a corrupt society. The story suggests that corruption comes from the failings of people, not from society itself, and it places its detective at the borders of both respectable and criminal worlds so he can pursue the truth.
The film offers several positive moral elements. The detective investigates wrongdoing rather than accepting appearances. One suspect is a loving father, and the actor eventually decides to stop drinking so he can devote himself to his daughter. A Christian choir sings a nice hymn during a brief church scene.
Those strengths are heavily marred by strong foul language and sexual immorality. The story also includes a brief scene in which a woman promotes left-wing environmentalist ideology on the radio. Its moral concerns are therefore genuine but compromised by the way the film presents them.
The film’s pursuit of truth and justice points toward a biblical longing for what is right: “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Light moral worldview about a detective trying to find a murderer in Hollywood and dealing with an angry, quirky drug dealer who’s involved somehow, one of the suspects is a loving father toward his very cute daughter, and a Christian choir is heard singing a nice hymn during a brief scene set in a church, but the positive content is heavily marred by lots of strong foul language and some sexual immorality, plus there’s a scene in the beginning where a woman on the radio promotes left-wing environmentalist ideology
Foul Language
At least 119 obscenities (many “f” and “s” words), six strong Jesus profanities, one light profanity, and man vomits after viewing a body
Violence
Strong violence includes image of a burned body, detective is punched multiple times by thugs, one thug hits him with a small frying pan in one scene, detective scuffles with another man who’s been following him, and he gives the man the third degree, and a tense foot chase scene with the killer who’s sot at the end
Sex
No depicted sex but there’s two passionate kisses, it’s revealed that a married couple were not faithful to one another, detective’s sometime girlfriend says they kept hooking up together in the past, and detective sleeps with one of the suspects, a kindergarten teacher at an expensive private school who, he finds, slept with two or more of the fathers of children attending the school and now says she’s pregnant
Nudity
Brief upper male nudity, but no explicit nudity otherwise
Alcohol Use
Detective’s client has an alcohol problem, but at the end of the movie he decides to stop drinking so he can devote himself to his daughter, whose mother was murdered
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
Smoking and detective hero questions a drug dealer who may be involved in one or two murders and drug dealer, and his thugs harasses the detective hero;
Miscellaneous Immorality
Some light miscellaneous immorality in mystery plot such as woman stole an item of value from a drug dealer that he wants returned, thugs try to intimidate detective, and it’s revealed that two of the suspects were being blackmailed by another character who ends up murdered.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Waldo pursues the truth through a world of corruption. Why does justice require courage when the truth is costly?
Micah 6:8 · Proverbs 12:22The accused actor’s love for his daughter helps move him toward sobriety. How should love shape the changes we make?
1 Corinthians 13:4–7 · Ephesians 4:22–24The film includes sexual unfaithfulness and blackmail. How do secrecy and dishonesty damage relationships and communities?
Proverbs 28:13 · Ephesians 4:25A Christian hymn is heard during a church scene. What does it mean to pursue justice while remembering that God sees what others hide?
Hebrews 4:13 · Psalm 51:6The Final Word
LAST LOOKS is a captivating, lively, well-acted detective mystery with positive moral elements. Its heavy amount of strong foul language and sexual immorality makes it unsuitable for families and younger viewers. For discerning adults willing to weigh those concerns, it is WORTH THE TRIP — ADULTS ONLY. For other options, see.
