My Last Day Without You (2011)

While browsing Netflix looking for some basic entertainment to fill a few hours I noticed this film in my recommended items. It's setting (New York) and premise sounded exactly like the kind of thing I'd enjoy, so I decided I'd give it a try. The most remarkable thing about the film is how quickly it's appeal wears thin within it's brief 90 minute runtime. 40 minutes in, just as it seems that the guy (Niklas) might get the girl (Ticia) I was already bored and fidgety, carefully watching the bar to see how much longer there was left until the end.While Nicole Beharie turns in an excellent performance as the aspiring musician, her potential romantic partner, played by Ken Duken, comes off as a German Christian Gray; good looks but not much personality. His dialogue is at times incoherent, partially due to his accent but mostly down to the quiet tone of his voice, forcing me to watch most of the film with the subtitles on. The expression on his face is an almost constant puppy dog look with his head cocked to one side, maybe endearing to women (or men) who like that kind of thing, but to the ordinary viewer it simply makes him incredibly punchable. The subplot between the Pastor and Luz was also a mistake, mainly due to the fact that I didn't know enough about the characters to care what happened to them. It might have made a difference if the audience found out how long the pastor had been widowed and how his wife had died, but I doubt it worth the amount of screen time it was given. The film was very well shot, with a very picturesque quality to the establishing shots and a gorgeous warm look to the film. My Last Day Without You is a beautiful looking film with some funny spots, a good soundtrack and an excellent performance by one of the leading actors which ultimately comes across as trying to hard to be like the infinitely better Before Sunrise, but without the fantastic script, likable, realistic and witty characters and memorable resolution. While Before Sunrise made you feel like the characters could actually work together, the clichéd ending of My Last Day Without You left me feeling unsatisfied, believing that the characters will never work together as they haven't truly grown and learnt the lesson about courage that the film is presenting. In fact the irony of the film is that for all its talk about having the courage to take risks, it follows the feel-good Rom-Com pattern to the letter, not taking any risks with the story or themes and leaving the film overall feeling empty.

I am not too much into romantic movies, I rarely watch them. But this one really kept my attention, simply because of how unorthodox it is (comparing to genre fellows).There were no big screenplay-helping coincidences, just people who could act so due the state of the mind, they actually were at. One can see there are some actual events behind it. Dialogues are pretty civil and I like the fact being a different race couple isn't a leading issue. Yeah, characters are not ignorant about fact it is so ( for example dialogue about jazz musicians in Europe), but there is not the main theme. I love both Beharie and Duken- guy might be a big name in the future (I saw few of his movies and he created a few totally different personalities of his characters in them- in like Max Manus or the Ueberlingen accident.) I have edited my rating after I have seen it for the second time. I am really excited, how sincere this movie is. Keep on going the crew.

This film was co-produced by the Euro-Africa Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church as a method of witnessing. Do a wikipedia search for the name of this film for more info. What is bad, is the film contains curse words and vulgar words. The vulgar words are in the background music - a rap song called Black Madoff. Because the volume is low you will most likely not notice, but your kids might! Since when is "supportin' sh** like unity..." and "F*** her phone number. I tell her to Google me..." a Christian way to reach the public? The curse and vulgar words used in the movie occur in the song at about 1:34 and 1:42. The original rap is located here so you can hear it very plainly. http://www.musicxray.com/xrays/7542Anyway, beware, and don't take your kids to this.

Niklas is being talked to in German by someone unseen at the start of the movie and later lands in New York. Leticia(Nicole Beharie) is singing and playing a piano in her apartment, while composing a song. Next scene and good looking Nik is in his power suit sitting in a board room, telling a small group of American workers that they are being laid off due to downsizing. He walks into a coffee shop and guess who is sitting next to him; the beautiful, everybody calls me Tish, and she hands him a cd of her music. The good German tracks her down and asks for a date. At first she says no, but with his persistence, has lunch with him. They go back to her apartment and she sings for him and it is magic. They kiss and almost get it on, but she is a Christian girl and can't do it on the first date. Meanwhile the aspiring singer finds out that Niklas is the one who is responsible for her losing her job. Nik offers to fly her to Europe and set her up with a friend in the music business, but she just loves Brooklyn. A side story with her pastor father is also thrown into the mix. This is a routine and predictable romantic comedy which just breezes along. Nicole Beharie is gorgeous and has a good voice with decent songs. Her talent deserves better material.