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.
Whilst it’s easy to see how frustrated Filip and Fredrick are with Lars and his ease at giving up, the film is wise enough to never paint any misfortunes entirely on Lars. We as an audience are completely on Filip and Fredrick’s side, but sequences where we see how difficult it is for Lars to do something as simple as chop food with a knife drive home just how brittle he truly is, and as much as Filip wants his father to return to the sprightly man he was, reality paints a harsher picture.
That being said, Lars is also aware that his condition will only worsen, and the trip is ultimately the best thing for him, and the sequences where he fully embraces the journey – complete with Filip and Fredrick quite amusingly staging certain set-pieces to bring back cherished memories for Lars – are genuinely joyous. Additionally, The Last Journey, if nothing else, serves as the perfect advert for French tourism, with the scenery here truly breathtaking; if the vision of their Renault cruising through mountainous locales and by the Mediterranean Sea doesn’t make you want to book a trip immediately, nothing will.
As optimistic as it is real, with a finale that is sure to not leave a dry eye in the house, The Last Journey is a beautiful piece of storytelling about, ultimately, honouring the time we have in the present. As much as the past shapes us, and we all look toward a bright future, all we have is here and now. Last journey or not, we are more enriched having gone along for this ride.
FOUR STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
The Last Journey is screening in Australian theatres from February 27th, 2025. Ahead of the film’s national release, Filip Hammar and Fredrik Wikingsson are conducting a special live Q&A screening in Sydney on Sunday the 16th February at the Hayden Orpheum Cremorne. Tickets for the event are on sale here.
