With his film Last Embrace (1979) Jonathan Demme tackles the aesthetic idiom of Alfred Hitchcock and Brian De Palma with his own variation on Vertigo (1958). Demme’s film concerns a revenge plot generations in the making that involves human trafficking, the Book of Deuteronomy, Princeton University’s graduate program, and elite government agents. The plot is dense, often murky, but always suspenseful.
The script by David Shaber struggles to articulate the nuances of the conspiracy, particularly in the second act of the film. This is the great weakness in Last Embrace. As Roy Scheider runs around looking for clues it’s hard to root for him when those clues don’t seem to add up to much moment by moment. The mystery is a mystery until the sudden reveal that it’s Janet Margolin who is the killer as she drowns a man in her bathtub.
Demme’s direction is never as baroque as De Palma’s or Hitchcock, but it is kinetic. Demme adds cinematic flourishes where ever he can, sometimes even disrupting the natural progression of shots in a single sequence. In a scene where Scheider is being followed through Central Park, Demme opts to shoot Scheider and his tail in one take with the camera panning and spinning around the subjects. It’s a bold move that breaks up the classicism of Demme’s usual blocking.
Yet, despite all of Demme’s references to Hitchcock and De Palma, Last Embrace is distinctly a Jonathan Demme film. The major set pieces are all pure Hitchcock, but in the moments between shootouts in bell towers and chases around Niagara Falls Last Embrace has all the humanism and quirks that make Demme’s films unique. The cat is an excellent example of how Demme interjects a relatable variable into the fantastic world of the thriller.
As Last Embrace starts and stutters its way through its uneven storytelling, the tremendous cast is there to carry the film and keep the audience riveted. Last Embrace features Sam Levene, Christopher Walken, John Glover and Joe Spinell in supporting roles; effectively imbuing the film with the illusion of life beyond the scene. Last Embrace is not a great film, but it is thoroughly enjoyable.
