Another literary adaptation, Last Orders follows a group of old drinking buddies who gather to take the ashes of their deceased friend, Jack (Caine), to his preferred resting place. Along the way, through solitary reminiscences and conversations, they reflect on their own lives and the ones they touched over the years. Graham Swift's Booker Prize winning novel wasn't exactly noted for its simplistic central narrative thread due to the proliferation of narrators and the hazy recollections. However, rather than attempting to condense and ultimately betray his source material, Schepisi expertly captures the mood and atmosphere of the book through the medium of a fractured flashbacks, and patient character building. Needless to say, the all star cast do exceptional work, but most importantly, none of them attempt to dominate the proceedings, instead offering deeply moving portraits of men whose lives have passed them by. On the downside, the film occasionally errs on the wrong side of cockney nostalgia and a couple of the characters are a little too swiftly dealt with. But ultimately this is an intelligent and touching piece of cinema that figures boozing as a central component. Now, there's something you don't see every day.
