Last orders

Effortlessly moving between World War II and contemporary London, “Last Orders” is a film about friendship, honour and familial ties. Jack Dodd’s three best friends, and his son (played by Ray Winstone), are taking his ashes from London to Margate for the burial that Jack has demanded. His wife, Amy (Helen Mirren), has refused to go along for the ride: her journey takes the form of bittersweet remembrance of the betrayals, joys and comforts which are part of a lifelong marriage. Schepisi creates a perfectly realistic evocation of both old age and the passionate desires and dreamings of youth. “Last Orders” is in fact a peculiar kind of road movie in which the most important part of the journey is across time, and one in which the characters and personalities of the travellers are much more important than the dour suburbia through which they travel. At the heart of the film is Michael Caine’s Oscar nominated performance as Jack Dodd but he is ably supported by a superlative cast of British character actors. By placing actors such as Caine, Tom Courtenay and David Hemmings in a film about aging, death and grief, Schepisi also creates a loving memorial to the golden age of British cinema - the tough working class films of the early sixties which smashed the genteel pretensions of an earlier British cinema (though gentility was to arise again in the period dramas which now form the backbone of British television). “Last Orders” is based on the award winning novel by Graham Swift.