Dir/scr: Stephen Wallis | Cast: John Cleese, Derek Jacobi, Stuart Townsend, Fiona Glasgott, Morgana Robinson | Ireland, Canada. 2023. 85’
What a great cast – but then what an odd comedy: That’s what immediately sprung to mind watching the opening scene of Stephen Wallis’ ‘existential’ drama.
The Martini Shot ponders the meaning of life through the eyes of a pervy and pious film director, but fails to reach any conclusion, leaving us, the viewers, baffled and rather disappointed. One thing is clear, the title apparently refers to the film industry’s term for the final shot of the day.
Matthew Modine looks decidedly weird sporting a bushy white beard and snowy shock of hair as Stephen, a film director at the end of a successful career who’s dying of cancer and keen to go out with a bang, film-wise and erotically: he has re-cast his former therapist as the attractively buxom Dr Ehm (played by Morgana Robinson) along the lines of “if you’ve got it flaunt it dear”. And she plays along gamely – so much for female empowerment!.
So Stephen’s shooting a ‘low budget’ transcendental outing set around County Limerick with a cast who have largely passed on. Derek Jacobi is his usual affable luvvie – an actor called Errol who now haunts his own rural pile, and there’s Stuart Townsend’s Philip who has succumbed to a drug overdose. The result is a series of non-sequiturs despite the cast giving their best with their well-honed performances that won them awards at the COBB International Film festival. So it’s a marmite kind of film.
NOW RELEASE on UK digital from Miracle Media