Last Call is a fictional account of the final days of exuberant and notorious Welsh poet Dylan Thomas as he sets out on a final poetry tour of New York. Desperate for money and with a wife and three children dependent on him, Thomas accepts a job believing it is beneath him. He spends his time in the city drinking at the White Horse Tavern and becoming increasingly ill between poetry readings. Everything comes to a head when he goes on a bender so extreme he cannot perform the last lecture, makes a scene at the bar, and has his final drink while ruminating on life, death, and the concept of love.
Acting
Rhys Ifans transforms into a sweating, slurring monument to wasted talent.
Cinematography
Black-and-white visuals that make alcoholism look almost romantic. Almost.
Direction
Bernstein frames Thomas's death march as both tragedy and dark joke.
Director
Steven Bernstein
John Malkovich
Dr. Felton
Rhys Ifans
Dylan Thomas
Rodrigo Santoro
Carlos
Romola Garai
Caitlin Thomas
Tony Hale
Brinnan
Zosia Mamet
Penny
Philip Ettinger
Alexi
Sean Tucker
Bartender
Ellen David
Dorothy
Mike Paterson
Teddy
Andrew Shaver
Reggie - Publisher #1
Arthur Holden
Dean
Jonathan Higgins
Julian - Publisher #2
Elizabeth Neale
Medical Student
Nina Lauren
Utility Stand-In
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The real Dylan Thomas drank 18 straight whiskies at the White Horse Tavern before his fatal coma in 1953; the film compresses his final weeks into one hallucinatory bender.
John Malkovich plays the doctor narrating Thomas's final hours; he and Rhys Ifans never share screen time, creating a ghost-story structure where one man watches another die.
US
