Review: The Last Keepers / Cert: 12 /Director: Maggie Greenwald / Screenplay: Peter Hutchings, Christina Mengert / Starring: Zosia Mamet, Aidan Quinn, Virginia Madsen, Olympia Dukakis / Release Date: April 21st
About ten minutes into The Last Keepers, it becomes blindingly obvious that this is not a movie aimed at jaded, aged film reviewing hacks. This is, in fact, a movie aimed at slightly rebellious teenage girls who quite fancy the idea of going off the straight and narrow but probably won’t if it’s all the same to you. And that’s okay. With its decent cast, sharp (if occasionally sappy) script and warm cinematography, it’s an easy-on-the-eye movie which passes eighty-odd minutes agreeably enough even though you might feel the need to go out and out-stare a puppy when it’s over just to reassert your maturity or, in this reviewer’s case, your masculinity.
Zosia Mamet (I had one but the wheel fell off) plays quirky, arty Rhea Calver, who lives with her quirky, arty parents and her quirky, arty gran and she, like, just doesn’t fit in with all the other kids in school. This might be because she wears ghastly frocks which look like exploded lampshades and has geeky friends. Her classmates snicker and sneer but softie Simon (Sam Underwood) has a crush on her and woos her with terrible self-written poetry. Rhea is just coming to terms with the fact that someone outside her family likes her when she’s hit by the bombshell that she’s actually the latest in a family line of witches and that she’s set to inherit the powers of her ma and gran which she, as a ‘chosen one’, will use for the good of Mankind. Rhea tells Simon, who blabs it to the school and, before long, she’s an outcast again for all sorts of reasons. Rejecting her destiny, she squeezes into a tight skirt, starts flirting with a bad boy and goes to illicit booze parties. No good can come of this, you might think; but fortunately when she’s faced with a situation where she can use her powers for the greater good, Rhea discovers the power of love, the importance of family and that there is a reason for all things – even magicky things.
The Last Keepers is the very definition of a light and inoffensive thing and there’s not a house in the land that would find anything even remotely disturbing here. But that’s not the point of it. It’s a slightly racey fantasy romance for slightly older kids and whilst it’s undeniably anodyne to the point of sickliness it’s still hugely less offensive and button-pushing than stuff like the Twilight saga and can be happily recommended for teenagers of a curious disposition.
Extras: None
