A great movie based on the true story of an eccentric character most of us can identify with. Peter Gray thought it was such a good movie he gave it a 4 / 5 star rating.  He writes …

Film Review: The Last Journey is a beautiful piece of storytelling about seizing life’s wonder, by Peter Gray, The Au Review, February 14, 2025.

In a time when there’s so much uncertainty in the world, a film like The Last Journey feels even more special and affirming as it projects pure beauty and an uplifting nature in telling its central story around two men and their determination to reaffirm life’s wonder for another.

Swedish journalists and television hosts Filip Hammar and Fredrik Wikingsson – known as Filip och Fredrik in their homeland – take their organic rapport on the road in The Last Journey, centering their attention around Filip’s ageing father, Lars, and the determination in giving him purpose in his “third act” of life.  At 80-years-old, Lars is a picture of fragility, and far from the bubbly persona we see him as during early moments of the film that show him singing and dancing about with his students and colleagues as he bids a 40-year teaching career farewell.

Though he retired almost two decades ago, Lars is still a far cry from what we know.  He’s simply waiting to die, and Filip and his mother Tiina, Lars’ wife, are getting quite distressed at his lack of motivation; Tiina, who is the picture of health, comments that he hasn’t left the house in nearly a decade.

Enlisting Fredrik, Filip concocts an outlandish plan to put the pep back in his father’s step.  What if recreating Lars’ most cherished family trip would reinvigorate his zest for life? Though Fredrick is concerned that Lars, who can barely walk, is hard of hearing, and clearly has an aversion to endeavours of the strenuous kind, may be supremely overwhelmed, he backs his friend’s idea to the end.  With an orange Renault and a line-up of specifically curated recreations to help Lars remember his family trip to France from years prior, Filip hopes for the best, but, quite often, has to brace for the worst, as his enthusiasm and Lars’ ability don’t always align.

To read the full review, visit HERE