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WTF You Just Watched: ‘The Last Thing He Wanted,’ Aka the Most Confusing Movie Ever

Photo credit: Netflix
Photo credit: Netflix

From Cosmopolitan

Lately, it feels like every movie has us thinking, “What the fuck did I just watch?” In this series, we will break down exactly what happened in all those wild, mind-bendy, and just plain strange films...in a way that’s much easier to understand than the actual movie.

THERE ARE SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE LAST THING HE WANTED.


When I heard Anne Hathaway and Ben Affleck were going to be in a Netflix movie together, I’ll admit I was intrigued. I mean, two actors of that caliber don’t always make a movie that goes directly to a streaming service, but 2020 is a weird time. After watching The Last Thing He Wanted this past weekend, I get it. This is literally the most confusing movie I’ve ever seen. Let’s talk about it.

Usually, these posts start by saying something about the plot, like a little summation. I would do that here, but I literally cannot, because it was so damn confusing. Here’s what I could glean from an IMDb copy/paste: “A veteran D.C. journalist (Hathaway) loses the thread of her own narrative when a guilt-propelled errand for her father thrusts her from byline to unwitting subject in the very story she’s trying to break. Adapted from Joan Didion’s namesake novel.” Cool-cool-cool. Losing the thread of her own narrative is right.

Here, a list of the most WTF things that happened in this godforsaken film:

  • The casting of Willem Dafoe as Anne Hathaway’s dad. Is he really old enough to be her dad?! Hooboy.

  • The fact that Ben Affleck’s character’s name is Treat. TREAT. I have no words.

  • Elena ditching her campaign trail job to run GUNS across the border for her father. I don’t care who your dad is, most people are more logical than that. She and her dad weren’t even close!

  • After delivering those guns, Elena stays in Costa Rica (I think—it’s very hard to tell) “to investigate” or something. IDK, but it seems ill-advised to get in the car with an illegal weapons trader when you don’t even know what country you’re in.

  • Wait, what was up with that breast cancer storyline? Like, I’m not mad about it, I just needed it to be tied to something else and have a logical purpose.

  • When Elena sleeps with Treat for literally no reason and it seems like there’s a backstory there that we, the viewers, never find out. Like, did they hook up before? Because that seems like the only explanation here.

  • Honestly, the entire second half of the movie could be on this list.

  • It seems like there was supposed to be a connection between that Bob Weir guy and that Ben Affleck character, but could anyone actually explain it? Seriously, I’ll give you $1 if you can.

  • The fact that she was ultimately killed by the guy she slept with not 24 hours before. Remind me to never go on another date, ever.

Photo credit: Netflix
Photo credit: Netflix

Did I miss anything? Probably. This film is a dumpster fire of plot points that never quite come together and make you feel like you need to know a lot about South American politics to even get the gist. Some movies are confusing in a good way. Like, Inception for example. This is not one of those films. So, if you’re staring down your very full Netflix queue, feel free to take a pass on this one. It is, quite literally, the last thing you’ll ever want.

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