There’s an evident love of all things Hitchcock at play in Last Moment of Clarity, but despite a solid line-up of talent – Samara Weaving, Brian Cox, and Udo Kier are all on the roster – it’s all a little too clumsy and coincidental that Hitchshlock may be a better term.
As is the case with most thrillers that opt to thoroughly destroy a loving couple, at the centre of Colin and James Krisel’s film are Georgia (Weaving) and Sam (Zach Avery), whose picture perfect existence is about to be brutally upended by the most unfortunate of circumstances. An aspiring actress with a penchant for photography, Georgia unknowingly implicates herself in a crime when sweet Sam, innocently taking a snap on one of her cameras, points his lens at the nearby window that just so happens to place focus on a European mobster (Kier, in an extended cameo) in the midst of killing someone.
We aren’t the least bit surprised when henchmen are then on the hunt for Sam, but in standard genre practice, the hit on Sam is appropriately botched and Georgia is caught in the crossfire, a stray bullet supposedly taking her out. Sam legs it, hides out in Paris, and hopes laying low will keep him off certain mobster radars… if only it was that simple.
Three years passes and Sam, working under Gilles (Cox, with somewhat of an indecipherable accent) at a cafe, has his past unexpectedly thrust upon him once more when, on his day off, he sees a film that features an actress, Lauren Creek, who bares a striking resemblance to Georgia. Sure, she’s now a platinum blonde, but those features are undeniable and Sam’s conviction that she is Georgia is only strengthened when a Google search returns very little information regarding her history, specifically anything past three years prior to her gradual rise in the industry.
Last Moment in Clarity certainly enjoys itself as it borrows cliches and narrative tropes from many other genre entrants, and your enjoyment of the film itself will really come down to whether or not you’re invested in the main plot device of just who Lauren is. Is she truly Georgia in disguise? Or has Sam well and truly slipped into delusion?
Whilst the film thinks it’s a much smarter project than it actually is, and you’ll likely be left with little actual story if you opt to poke holes in every turn as it moves along at its brisk pace, the filmmakers have at least created something that doesn’t overstay its welcome and, thanks to serviceable performances, is watchable shlock that more than passes the time. This Moment doesn’t necessarily have clarity of its own, but if you switch off and surrender to its B-grade temperament, you can at least enjoy the instance unfolding.
Last Moment of Clarity is available to rent or buy on DVD and Digital in Australia from December 8th, 2021.
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