TIFF Review: ‘The Last Photograph’ is a Miserable Experience

When the Toronto International Film Festival added Zack Snyder‘s passion project, The Last Photograph, as a surprise to their lineup, I was genuinely curious. I usually like Snyder’s movies well enough, though rarely are over the moon for them. I’m on record thinking the Snyder Cut is an improvement on Justice League, for example. I got a kick out of Army of the Dead, too. So, it’s important to know that I went into this TIFF screening with no axe to grind. I say that so it’s clear I’m just taking the film on its own merits. That being said, this flick is awful.

The Last Photograph is a miserable experience, vile at times, tedious at others, and a complete misfire. Credit to Snyder for making the exact film he wanted to make. I will always support auteurs getting to film their passion projects. At the same time, that does not guarantee quality, and this movie is abysmal. Truly rough stuff.

We open on Joe Wallace (Fra Fee), a conflict photographer, right as he captures the murder of a diplomat, the diplomat’s wife, and their two children. That diplomat is the brother of retired DEA agent Ethan Black (Stuart Martin), who not only wants revenge, but wants his missing niece and nephew back. Traveling to South America, he hooks up with Joe, who witnessed the act. Ethan is no-nonsense and absolutely brutal, laying waste to those in his path. Joe is drug-addicted and world-weary, having seen it all. Together, they enter some of the most hostile parts of Columbia, hoping for a long shot rescue.

The further they travel, the more carnage happens, with quite the body count being left in Ethan’s past. At the same time, Joe starts to learn about Ethan’s past, his regrets, as well as unresolved issues, which take a toll on them both. Before long, this mission has taken on a very different meaning to them both, destined to change them forever, provided they even make it out alive. An obsessed killer and a junkie, traveling through the remote wilderness. What could go wrong? A lot, it turns out.

Fra Fee and Stuart Martin are fine, giving intense performances, but the intended layering of their characters are just riddled with cliches. When they’re not locked in action sequence after action sequence, there are overwrought monologues that really hammer home themes we’ve already understood well before. It’s not their fault, but they just never connect with the audience. Supporting performances here include Costanza Andrade, Gustavo Angarita, Pedro Calvo-Anca, Mia Calvo, Ed Hughes, Jackie Kay, Quique Mendoza, Marlon Moreno, and more.

Zack Snyder directs his passion project, which he’s developed for two decades with writer and longtime collaborator Kurt Johnstad. Their dedication to the film is admirable. Unfortunately, it’s bloated, boring, brutally violent, overly indulgent, and poorly paced. The action is violent to the point of overkill, through effectively staged. However, whenever the movie stops for a cliched monologue, complete with flashbacks, you feel the two hour and fifteen minute running time deep in your bones. I completely believe that Johnstad and Snyder felt they had something to say here. It simply has not translated in the least.

The Last Photograph is a total mess and easily the worst thing I saw this year at TIFF. Maybe Zack Snyder will go back into the editing room and tinker? In this case, whatever the new cut would be can only be an improvement. No critic goes into a film and wants to hate it, trust me. Why would we waste our time like that? So just know, there’s no pleasure in despising a movie, at all. That’s just the way the cookie crumbled here.

SCORE: ★1/2