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kmanderson35
Reviews
Last Night in Soho (2021)
Beautifully shot movie with great casting doesn't live up to potential
Warning - Spoilers
Last Night in Soho has so much going for it. Among them are a top-tier cast and beautiful cinematography - especially cleverly done of the "mirror" scenes where the main character sees herself as the 60s-era Sandie. It is a suspense story with fantasy elements that unfortunately turns into a heavy-handed horror film. While gorgeously filmed, there is not much meat to any of the characters. It is very much style over substance.
The first half of the movie has momentum as it sets up the plot. The main character is a sheltered and possibly psychic Eloise, off to the big city to study fashion. Her roommate Jocasta is well-drawn in the few scenes we see her in, as a mean girl who both looks down on Eloise's sheltered qualities and can't stand not being the center of attention herself. She is a narcissistic bully, but not a one-dimensional one - she seems very much a real person.
The conflict with her roommate leads Eloise to look for other lodging. The new digs, a room in a house owned by a Ms. Collins, is where Eloise begins to dream of Sandie and her life in London in the 60s. From the beginning of the movie Eloise has been shown to be nostalgic for the 1960s, especially its music, and her dreams seem exciting and fun as she follows the aspiring singer Sandie, played by Anya Taylor-Joy.
As the dreams get darker and there is more merging of current reality with past reality, the movie begins to lose the good things it had going for it. There are scenes of a frantic Eloise running through the streets of London, of course almost getting hit in traffic. The movie goes from suspense to horror, with zombie-like ghosts. And there is a twist, which itself could have been interesting. Unfortunately the writing here sacrifices character to plot. Is it really likely a selfish serial killer will go from trying to murder someone one moment to encouraging them to save themselves the next?
There are some thought provoking elements here, but mostly the movie doesn't live up to its glitzy surface appeal.