Last Orders review

Watching the masterful cast at work in Last Orders is like huddling around a crackling fire on a grey, drizzling winter's day. The effortless familiarity they enjoy with one another and the few concessions they make to vanity infuse the film with a palpable authenticity, providing warmth to the often cheerless setting. Based on the novel by Graham Swift, Last Orders is a tender, moving tale of love, betrayal, denial and regret involving lifelong friends on a trip to scatter the ashes of one of their own. As they journey to Margate pier to fulfil their friend's final wish, the film travels back and forth in time, establishing their relationships, drawing you slowly in as it reveals the telling moments in their pasts that have brought them to this point.

Reportedly, Australian director Fred Schepisi assembled the distinguished cast by telling each of them individually that the others had already agreed to do it, even though none had. It was a resourceful ploy, though I suspect Schepisi's restrained and evocative script might have been equally influential in their decision. What remained of the small budget certainly wasn't lavished on the look of the film that at times resembles a TV drama, particularly with its drab rendering of the English countryside.

The film's title alludes to both the central plot and the boozy pub culture that unites the characters. Ray (Bob Hoskins), Vic (Tom Courtenay), and Lenny (David Hemmings) congregate at their south London local with Vic the undertaker clutching the ashes of their recently departed mate Jack (Michael Caine). As they stare at the plastic urn, they reflect on the improbability of squeezing such a large personality into such a small container. And with that the film cuts back to the same spot six weeks earlier when the exuberant Jack held court. It's a tactic used throughout Last Orders as it scans from the present back more than fifty years, using young stand-ins when necessary and an amusing selection of wigs and make-up to roll back the more recent years.

Jack's son Vince (Ray Winstone) rounds out the group heading to Margate, using a prized Mercedes from his used car dealership to honour the occasion. Despite the sombre nature of the trip, it's undertaken with fond good humour, though occasionally punctuated with the residue of a longstanding feud between the cantankerous Lenny and the tough but sensitive Vince. Preferring to remain at home is Jack's widow Amy (Helen Mirren) who instead visits their retarded daughter June whose existence had created a permanent fracture in the marriage.

Last Orders might depict a mournful and desolate world void of opportunity and wealth, but here hope is the currency and everyone has a little stashed away.