The Last Thing He Wanted (2020) on Netflix
Elena McMahon, a journalist reassigned to Reagan's 1984 campaign, meets her father, Dick, who has dementia and traffics contraband. He asks her to meet his associate, and she agrees.
- Netflix1.2/5
- IMDb4.4/1017,666 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes5%
Trailer
Plot summary
Elena McMahon reports for the Atlantic Post from its Central American bureau in El Salvador, and the civil war there forces her to flee. Years later she wants the bureau reopened, but her editor tells her Congress is quietly pressing the paper to scale back what it reports from Central and South America, so that is off the table. She is sent out on Ronald Reagan's re-election campaign instead. Elena reluctantly agrees to see her absent father, Dick, and finds he is still mixed up in moving illegal contraband and is also suffering from dementia. He begs her to meet Barry Sedlow, a business associate, about a deal. She agrees, since it lets her dig into the story from inside.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Last Thing He Wanted (2020)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Joan Didion's 1996 novel The Last Thing He Wanted was reshaped for the film by adding the character Alma and expanding the role of Jones; Dee Rees said Elena's refusal to trust Jones despite him repeatedly saving her served as commentary on race that was absent from Didion's novel.
- In one early scene, Anne Hathaway and Rosie Perez run for an airplane as the camera moves away from them, through the airport and out to the tarmac as they board, an approach that creates "isolation and uncertainty in nearly every frame of the movie".
- Dee Rees said casting Ben Affleck was important to her focus on Elena trusting the white Morrison over the black Jones, saying Affleck and "all the baggage he brings" brought an important racial awareness to the film.
