The Last Word Monologues (2008– )

Three contemplative monologues about killing: 1, A dying woman waits for the pills that will end her life; 2, A farmer tries to find a way to escape his domineering mother; 3, An assassin awaits in a public toilet for his next target.

Stars:

Rhys Ifans

Cast

Series cast summary:
Rhys Ifans	...	Hugh (1 episode, 2008)

Storyline

Three contemplative monologues about killing: 1, A dying woman waits for the pills that will end her life; 2, A farmer tries to find a way to escape his domineering mother; 3, An assassin awaits in a public toilet for his next target.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 August 2008 (UK)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Baby Cow Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min 30 min (3 episodes)

Color:

Color

User Reviews

Comedy as black as blindness

If you like your humour as black as blindness, then you'll find these comic. They're on the border between profound and touching emotion and mawkish sentiment. I think that the brilliance of the acting mainly keeps them on the profound side, but I see that one reviewer finds that just that brilliance kept him from experiencing the raw emotion because, ironically, it made them seem less real, but that wasn't my experience.

I say mainly because Bob Hoskins obsessive-compulsive gangster was the weakest of the three, though it was funny.

Sheila Hancock's was the strongest performance but I might be swayed by the sound argument it presents for the legalisation of assisted suicide

• why should people have to travel to Zurich? What tiny act of kindness

could not, in the cold light of a courtroom, be judged to have been 'assistance' to suicide?

Rhys Ifans was amusing in a grim, Welsh way, and the bleakness of the story reminded me of 'House of America', another sodden Welsh blanket of a film. The plot, though, was not packed with surprising twists.