THE STORY – Determined to fulfill his life’s mission, 26-year-old John Allen Chau embarks on a dangerous adventure across the globe to convert the uncontacted tribe of North Sentinel Island to Christianity, while a detective from the Andaman Islands races to stop him before he does harm to himself or the tribe.
THE CAST – Sky Yang, Radhika Apte, Naveen Andrews, Ken Leung, Toby Wallace & Ciara Bravo
THE TEAM – Justin Lin (Director) & Ben Ripley (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 120 Minutes
Justin Lin is undoubtedly best known for his pulse-pounding action films, especially those belonging to the “Fast and the Furious” series (“The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift,” “Fast & Furious,” “Fast Five,” “Fast & Furious 6,” “F9”). Surprisingly, his latest film is a sober-minded drama about a true-life occurrence (with only one high-speed car sequence). “Last Days,” tells the grimly fascinating true story of John Allen Chau, a young American man who, as a devout Christian missionary, felt compelled to sneak onto North Sentinel Island off the coast of India. There, he hoped to convert the still-isolated native population but was, instead, killed by them. With “Last Days,” Lin explores Chau’s life and all that led up to his decision to essentially walk into certain death in the name of his beliefs. While it’s a compelling story (already thoroughly explored in the 2023 documentary film “The Mission“), Lin’s inability to focus on a defined perspective, along with the meandering, overstuffed nature of the screenplay, makes for a plodding, perplexing film.
Sky Yang plays Chau, a young man who, after graduating from the evangelical Christian university Oral Roberts, forgoes his father’s wish for him to attend medical school in favor of traveling the world as a missionary, preaching to those who don’t follow his same beliefs in increasingly far-off parts of the globe. Hoping to prove himself (To his father? To God? To himself? To all of them?), he sets his sights on the seemingly impossible task of preaching to the secluded residents of North Sentinel Island.
Yang is seemingly directed to play Chau as shallowly enthusiastic as possible (he has a habit of repeatedly exclaiming “Oh my gosh!” like an overly excited Saturday morning cartoon character). There’s little dimension to his character, which is beyond frustrating in a movie that seems to want to unpack him as a real-life person and understand why he’d want to do what he does. Ultimately, the film seems to land on the disappointingly typical answer of “daddy issues” (Ken Leung plays John’s father who starts off wanting his son to be a doctor before eventually just wanting him to not throw his life away) which plays out in a cringe-inducing Hollywoodized ending.
Before Chau even begins to think about actually smuggling himself onto North Sentinel Island, the film follows him on an excruciatingly long and repetitive journey as he travels around the world. The film makes the same point about his adventuring predilections over and over in seemingly endless montages and sequences that all end on the same idea – Chau is restless and wishes to continue spreading the Gospel. And not only is it monotonous, but the individual chapters themselves are overlong and tiresome. One journey through a jungle with a group of Australian tourists (featuring that aforementioned car sequence as they drive an off-road vehicle through nature, shrieking the whole way) feels particularly interminable. On top of all that, a parallel plot involving an Indian police inspector named Meera Ganali (Radhika Apte, giving an admirably passionate performance) who is working to find Chau before he ventures off on his suicide mission feels particularly unnecessary. The ambiguous, often wordless diversions about her personal life are even more confusing. In fact, most of her storyline would likely be significantly cut down had this film been made at one of the studios that usually employs Lin.
“Last Days” opens with conflicting voiceovers from news reports and talk shows commenting on Chau’s death, some calling him a martyr and some calling him a fool. With this, Lin establishes that he’ll be exploring both sides, which means he won’t be taking a side at all. In his film’s quest to remain objective, it instead becomes pointless.
