Last Night MPAA Rating: R Entertainment: +3 Content: -2 1/2

If you knew the world were to end at midnight tonight, how would you spend your last few hours? That question faces a small group of Toronto citizens, some of them related, some friends and a few total strangers. Patrick Wheeler (Don McKellar) is called to his parents home, where the family is gathering for an old-fashioned Christmas dinner, even though its not Christmas. Sandra (Sandra Oh) ventures out into the eerie city streets where stores have been vacated and occasional rowdy groups run through the streets stealing and vandalizing. As she takes items from an almost empty store for a special last meal, her parked car is literally carried away. Craig (Callum Keith Rennie) uses his website to solicit sex partners to fulfill his fantasies. The audience gets caught up in the drama and suspense of the choices these very different characters make as their paths cross and merge. McKellar also wrote and directed this provocative adult fantasy which has nothing to do with Biblical end times.

What makes LAST NIGHT a fantasy, of course, is the way the world ends. In the story, citizens have known for at least two months the exact time it will take place, with no religious connotations. Patricks parents pray with other elderly relatives as midnight approaches, but their son and daughter have no intention of sitting around with them. An executive of the gas company methodically calls every customer to thank them for their business. Sandra and her husband have planned a double suicide after a quiet dinner. The most offensive part of the film is Craigs determination to have as much sex with as many people as he can accommodate. Two graphic sex scenes include breast nudity. He even begs Patrick to have sex with him but Patrick only allows a kiss. Craig spouts most of the foul language - 12 obscenities and two regular profanities. Violence in the street includes a brief fight, a man hit with a shovel, cars demolished and stores ransacked. LAST NIGHTs tragic godless outlook contrasts sharply with the hope and promise of the Good News of the Gospel.

Preview Reviewer: Mary Draughon
Distributor: Lions Gate Films, 5750 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 501, Los Angeles, CA 90036