The Last Deal (2023) Film Review
Jonathan Salemi’s The Last Deal has a very simple argument for a plot. In fact, it’s kept throughout the entire film as the basis for a moral compass that’s frankly naive and basic. Illegal drugs? Bad. Legal drugs? Meh, but you can tell a whole character’s arc with that ambiguous consideration. Salemi is confident about the strength of his film, even if it isn’t strong enough to make you talk about his film for a while.
In it, a drug dealer meets the end of his gig. Cannabis has become legal in California, so he has to make ends meet with whatever he’s got. His operation doesn’t remain the same and the obvious and safe answer is out of the question. One last hit appears to be the only way out.
But Vince loses control. Of everything. From his romantic relationship to his business liaisons, Vince enters chaos while trying to prepare himself for the operation that promises to be the way out. What appears to be a betrayal turns out to be a good opportunity to revisit his past, which has a bit of unfinished business.
This is a sheer recollection of bad luck moments for Vince. It’s the main storyline of The Last Deal, a film that sits confidently in a comfort zone of story elements that are typical of crime thrillers that never aim to experiment with twists and turns. It’s a predictable film, but it’s also lacking risks in presenting conflicts and resolving them.
However, it’s also exactly what it needs to be. A character study regarding the morals of a situation we don’t ask much about because it’s inconvenient. Personally, I don’t think the war on drugs is tilting towards any side because of legalization. The film tries to add this story to that discussion and it’s done so very conveniently, with a final message that seems like an unnecessary comment on the cannabis industry: If you do things right, perhaps there will be redemption.
Does Vince deserve it? Sure. He gets enough shit when trying to leave and when trying to cope. If we see The Last Deal as a good opportunity to pay for your sins, then it’s a solid collection of events where a character is submitted to awful stuff just because he thought of the easy way out. Or in. At least, that’s what he tells us in the end, when everything’s worked out for him and he’s ready to start over.
By the way, Anthony Molinari? Very good performance by a relatively unknown actor who can perform solidly when given a good script and a good direction.
