Last Exit (2003)

Last Exit tells the story of Nigel, an English man, out on his luck arriving in Copenhagen to start a new life. All goes very dark when he falls for a beautiful working girl, Tanya, and he helplessly gets sucked into a nasty underworld.

Director:

David Noel Bourke

Writer:

David Noel Bourke (screenplay)

Stars:

Morten Vogelius, Jette Philipsen, Gry Bay

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Morten Vogelius	...	Nigel
Jette Philipsen	...	Maria
Gry Bay	...	Tanya
Peter Ottesen	...	The President
Nicholas Sherry	...	Jimmy
Erling Eliasson	...	Tobias
John Kelleher	...	Full Force Finn
Micah Epstein	...	Pedro Rodriguez Iguana
Christian Schrold	...	Brian
Dorte Rømer	...	Scottish Barmaid
Oliver Campbell-Calder	...	Wheelchair Man
Kristina Seefeld Andersen	...	Woman In Bin
André Moulin	...	Russian Drug Dealer
Michael Jorgensen	...	Little Boy
Michael Glinvad	...	Bar Guy

Storyline

An amazingly deft, shoestring-budget production that plumbs the depths of its dark themes with passionate, convincing performances, LAST EXIT is a gritty, sexy psychological thriller. Its antihero is Nigel, an incompetent criminal who flees his native England to Copenhagen in order to escape the loan sharks who are after him. He and his wife Maria shack up at a hotel, while each struggles separately with a drug problem. Maria manages to get a straight job, and Nigel gets a gig storing illegal goods for a local crime boss known as the President. Things heat up when Nigel falls for Tanya, a prostitute who works for the President, and their affair makes him ever more distant from Maria. The stage is set for a sex and violence-fueled descent into mayhem that remains intelligent throughout, as the plot twists and secrets are revealed. Maria gets pregnant and Nigel starts to snap, and the only sane one seems to be Jimmie, Nigel's existential pot dealer. Dark humor and a driving pop-rock ...

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Plot Keywords:

blood | drain | sex scene | low budget film | shock | 

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Taglines:

You cannot run away from yourself...

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Last Exit Productions

Country:

Denmark

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 November 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

Last Exit

Filming Locations:

Christiania, Christianshavn, Copenhagen, Denmark

Box Office

Budget:

$1,500 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Last Exit Productions, Heretic Films (II)

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Shot mainly by a two man film crew in 18 days (due to actor availability) for a budget of 1,500 dollars.

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Quotes

Nigel: What do you know about reality?
The Scottish barmaid: Well the reality I know is that talking to you is like licking piss off a nettle.
The Scottish barmaid: you've got to loosen up, are you sure you won't have a drink with me later?
Nigel: [she pulls a single baked bean from Nigel's hair] A bean.
[pause]
Nigel: And I'm married.

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Connections

References Scarface (1983)

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Soundtracks

Maria's Theme
Performed by Jacob Moth

User Reviews

Give this one a pass

This movie is an ambitious project with pretty good acting, but it suffers from some writing and technical problems. First, the good things. After I watched it I learned that the budget for this was about $1500, and if that's true, then getting this project completed is an impressive feat. Shot on location, you get a good feel for the neighborhood where the story takes place. The costumes, set design, and art direction are good at conveying the proper atmosphere for the scenes, and above all the acting is good and for the most part convincing. Now for the bad things. The writing, while not horrible, has enough holes and unanswered questions that it's hard to enjoy the story; certain things were unbelievable or unexplained. The most interesting characters to me were the drug dealer and the bartender, but their philosophical points didn't get explored as much as I would have liked, which in my opinion would have made this movie more interesting. The sound was at times difficult to understand and should have been overdubbed in post production (but if the entire budget was $1500 I can understand why this wasn't done), and most importantly, it was very uneven in spaces. Sound effects and music were at times unreasonably loud. Finally, this movie had a lot of scenes, especially at the end, that were so dimly lit that it was impossible to tell what was going on. Overall, a decent effort, but there were too many script and technical problems to be overcome by the good acting.