Written and directed by Loïc Tanson, co-written by Frederic Zeimet, after the brutal assassination of her parents, and abuse suffered by a tyrannical leader, Heléne a twelve-year-old girl manages to escape. Years later, having kept alive the embers of resentment Heléne returns in disguise, determined to seek her revenge. Starring: Sophie Mousel, Timo Wagner, Jules Werner, Luc Schiltz, Philippe Thelen, Marie Jung, Jean-Paul Maes, Denis Jousselin and Jeanne Werner.
If there’s one thing that you’re immediately looking to get out of The Last Ashes, it’s unfettered female rage, leading to chaos, carnage and violence. Unfortunately, it doesn’t feel like that’s what Loïc Tanson and Frederic Zeimet give the audience, instead it’s slow, cold and unsatisfying. It feels like making the choice to be a form of modern western sent the filmmakers down the wrong road. Creating a winding, dramatic tale, rather than a piece of all-out vengeance.
One of the main problems is that it never commits to its leading lady, it doesn’t give her the limelight and let her lead her own story. It’s disconnected and moving around from character to character, not creating enough separation to build up her anger and thirst for revenge. It gives her the odd moment but it’s not enough to develop and intensify the atmosphere. It gets caught up with the historical side of things and focusing on exploring this cult-like community, rather than raging against its machine of patriarchy and abuse.
Perhaps the most frustrating choice is its ending, it doesn’t ever feel like true revenge, a lot of Heléne’s (Sophie Mousel) power and impact has been taken away from her. Again, she’s sharing the limelight with other characters and never gets to have her resounding moment, it all falls fairly flat. It’s not that surprising given that it follows the way that The Last Ashes moves throughout, it’s quite one-noted and unfortunately lacks personality and individuality.
What makes that a real shame is the visual is actually doing what it needs to, it just doesn’t have the story to back it up. The cinematography is strong, it uses some interesting textures to make it feel aged and creates a nicely threatening air. The aesthetic, set dressing and locations are all great work but without something to inject them with energy and genuine emotion, there’s only so much that they can do.
It’s a similar story with the performances, Sophie Mousel leads the way well, she has a huge amount of potential to do justice to this character, if only the filmmakers would have let her. They never give her free rein, to truly let her monster out of the cage and have vengeance take over. To add to the more compassionate side Mousel gives Heléne when she’s interacting with her fellow women, which really rounds her out as a character.
The Last Ashes is sadly unfocused and unsatisfying, turning a story of vengeance into a slow drama and the two don’t fit. The foundation of the story and direction and cinematography are all there but once it gets going, the plot meanders and finds itself turning inwards rather than building a compelling, captivating tale. There was undeniable potential, but the filmmakers didn’t quite have a handle on what to do with this story or where to take it, to really do it justice.
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