Fantasy, 98 Minutes, 2011
James Furlong has a serious problem. The men in his line are afflicted with strange magical powers that tend to hinder more than help. His grandfather would go blind for 37 minutes if he thought about sex. His father disables machines near him when scared. James has it worse, however: whenever he’s hurt everything (and everyone) near him dies.
Mae-West O’Mara has a serious problem. Her family has struck the genetic jackpot and has chalked up deaths to nearly every kind of cancer there is. Mae-West’s issue is intestinal tumors which, despite several operations, will be taking her life very soon.
The story is in how these two cross paths, fall in love and change each others lives. The movie is sweet and sentimental and the two stars definitely have chemistry together. There are some issues with the pacing and staging but nothing overly distracting. The effects used to denote James’ “power” are a little uneven but when good they’re very, very good. In fact my only real complete is that the title makes absolutely no sense to me (the subtitle, “The Last Son”, makes slightly more).
This is just a very nicely done little fairy tale love story. It could have been pulled directly from a children’s bedtime storybook. It’s simple and direct and without pretension and because it stays so true to the course it laid out for itself it works rather well. This is an excellent movie for date-night or for romantic tween girls that might finally be getting of “Twilight”.
