Artist and debut filmmaker Rachel Rose explores the age-old conundrum of motherhood guilt and its effects on parenting and self preservation in The Last Day, based on author Virginia Woolf’s 1925 novel Mrs. Dalloway. Caregivers watching this are bound to reflect on their own sacrifices of dreams and aspirations for the greater good of parenthood. It is an absorbing watch that is set in the affluent neighbourhoods of American middle-class suburbia, but its purpose translates way beyond that. It is also a study of the resulting impact on mental health because of such sacrifices.
Julia (Alicia Vikander), a busy mother and once promising writer by trade, finds a wallet in car park and decides to return it to its owner after completing her errands for another lavish 4th of July celebration at her affluent home in New York’s suburbs. A journey into the city results in Julia bumping into old flame Peter, also a writer (Wagner Moura), triggering strong emotions of what could have been and what she has lost.
Meanwhile, the wallet’s owner, mother of three and trained nurse Taylor (Victoria Pedretti) is struggling with postpartum depression, unaware as she goes about her daily business in a daze that it has gone. The women finally, albeit briefly, cross paths in the latter half of the film, before tragedy occurs.
The ‘motherload’ of family life is an apt word that describes the caregiver’s mental load and all they need to do daily, in order to keep things ticking over for the sake of the family. More often than not, traditionally, the female makes the thankless sacrifices as the male continues about with their working routine, as portrayed in this film. This acts as a looming and sobering presence throughout, as the women at its core are reminded of what they used to be, and what they may not yet have achieved in their careers or personal growth before giving it all up to raise children. The offspring in this are portrayed as background actors to the inner turmoil of grief and loss at the fore that the women are going through.
Rose shoots her debut with sporadic, out of focus shots that then pull focus as snapshots of the world around the two women, signifying being out of sync with reality as they scramble to keep afloat. These are mixed with close-ups to show an emotional moment. At times, there is a bit of a disconnect with story events, before the viewer locks in again. That said Rose attempts to use this cinematic aspect to represent loss of control. Indeed, the party drug scenes at Julia’s house though oddly placed in such a tale, do serve to demonstrate the character’s contempt for what has become of her, as well as exercising her own free will to lose control for her own benefit.
Vikander and Pedretti are very well cast as Julia and Taylor respectively in the story, and compelling to watch slowly unravel: The viewer acts as an unwitting spectator to their personal moments of trauma and pain, unable to rescue them. When the women do meet, we feel a brief sense of relief that these two strangers might be able to help each other heal, but this is both fleeting and heartbreaking.
Rose shows her artistic flare in her feature debut as well as her sensitivity to the subject matter. The Last day is a quietly confident, observational piece of filmmaking that shows care for each character’s arc amidst the confusion of what is require in life from each.
