Bannière Horizontale JauneA promising cast – and presumably some noble intentions – are completely squandered by Sean Penn is his atrociously mishandled, inadvertently hilarious and often offensive The Last Face.

When a script is so appalling that the audience takes to applauding the “best” lines (“Love isn’t grabbing – it’s loving”, anyone?) and actually end up ironically enjoying themselves, you know you’ve made a film that doesn’t deserve to be taken as seriously as The Last Face takes itself.

Crass, pompous and self-important to the end, the focus on the petty squabbles of the two leads amidst all the genocide leaves a bitter taste.

A cringe-inducing, self-serving mess. There’s a good film in the subject matter somewhere, but Sean Penn is absolutely not the person to find it. Avoid.

RATING: 1/5

INFORMATION

CAST: Charlize Theron, Javier Bardem, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Jean Reno, Jared Harris

DIRECTOR: Sean Penn

WRITER: Erin Dignam

SYNOPSIS: The director of an international aid agency (Theron) meets a relief aid doctor (Bardem) amidst civil unrest in Africa, and the pair must make difficult choices about their lives.

TRAILER FORTHCOMING

The Last Face was screened In Competition at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.