The Last Word: A New Kind of Musical

The first thing that hits you about The Last Word is the music.
The film--the first feature from award winning director Tim McCusker--opens with Luke (Matt Wilson) and Ben (John Munson) performing a full-length, haunting version of Wilson's Forgot Me Now on acoustic guitar and upright bass.

Maybe not since Nashville, or at least since Purple Rain, has a movie so thoroughly integrated real musicians and their original songs into its fabric. And while the music in Nashville was mostly forgettable country pop, and while the story in Purple Rain was mostly forgettable psycho-drama, The Last Word features soaring acoustic rock from Wilson and Munson immersed in a richly layered romance which pairs Luke with hard-charging defense attorney Izzy Wright (Mary Lucia).

Luke and Izzy were an item back when Luke was still drinking, but Izzy dropped him and went on with life. Now, as the film begins, they bump into each other at the funeral of a therapist, who, it turns out, was treating them both. As they start to argue about the enigmatic Dr. Zizek, (was she a genius or a sham?) their romance rekindles. Meanwhile, Izzy is jumping off a professional cliff by quitting her job as a prosecutor to take up the defense of another old mentor, immigrant law professor Nadir Rumi (Pramod Mathur). Rumi has been arrested for downloading child porn off the Internet, but he's claiming entrapment.

As her authority figures crumble one by one, Izzy decides to take another chance on Luke. With a finely honed sense of irony, but also real sympathy for the characters, McCusker skillfully guides the film from enigma to enigma, allowing only the conclusion that you should "never say you know the last word about any human heart."

McCusker gets delicious comic turns in the smaller parts from seasoned actors like James Cada and Shirley Venard as Izzy's parents, Terry Hempleman as a cop with a crush, and Alex Cole as Izzy's former boss turned adversary. Legendary Twin Cities gospel singer Robert Robinson gets a star turn at the funeral scene, singing Wilson's Spirit. Most importantly, Mary Lucia is superb as Izzy, crackling with wit, frustration, and energy, while Wilson and Munson bring their bantering charm and charisma intact from their music act to film.

The screenwriter, Sam Magavern, writes convincingly about both courtroom performances and rock performances, perhaps because he is a lawyer who has spent his life with musicians. Art and life intermingle. Maybe because the film arose so organically out of the rich independent music and film scene of the Twin Cities, The Last Word, despite its bare bones budget, achieves something special: it has soul.