Critics’ reviews

Last Breath (2025)

17 reviews from 17 publications. Critics’ score 64: 10 positive, 3 mixed, 4 negative.

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64
Positive
10
Mixed
3
Negative
4

Most critics come away tense and mostly satisfied. Ten of the seventeen reviews are positive, and the praise gathers in one place: the procedural detail of saturation diving, and the way Parkinson builds suspense out of valves, gauges and radio chatter rather than speeches. The underwater camerawork earns repeated mention for its claustrophobia and its sense of the ocean’s size, and several reviews single out Woody Harrelson for supplying what warmth and humour the film has.

The spread is wide. Even admirers concede the characters are thin and the emotional payoff smaller than the peril deserves, and the negative reviews make that their whole case. Deadline and Empire argue that fidelity to Parkinson’s own documentary drains the drama, leaving ciphers where men should be, and Eye for Film finds the deep less frightening here than in the real footage. The New York Times goes further and calls it bland comfort food. Nobody disputes that it is tense; the argument is over whether tension is enough.

Vulture
28 February 2025
90*

The critic praises it as a shockingly good, breathtaking thriller that builds tangible suspense through detailed process and technology, delivering heart-attack tension and documentary-like clarity in a lean, elegant package.

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The Hollywood Reporter
26 February 2025 · Frank Scheck
85*

The critic calls it a gripping, taut adventure thriller that pares the story to essentials without wasting time and ratchets up tension effectively in a claustrophobic setting. It praises the authentic depiction of the events, the director's command of suspense, and strong supporting performances.

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The Guardian
16 March 2025
80*

The critic calls it an unbearably tense deep-sea drama based on real events. They praise the camerawork above and below water that plunges viewers into the survival thriller.

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Time Out
13 March 2025 · ★★★★ · Sophie Monks Kaufman
80

Parksinson's remake of his documentary delivers adrenaline through procedural detail of saturation diving and the team's solidarity under pressure.

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Variety
26 February 2025 · Owen Gleiberman
80*

A compact, journalistic true-life rescue thriller that sticks to facts without hype, effectively building suspense through specific details of saturation diving and the accident. Parkinson's debut impresses with its nuts-and-bolts tension and low-key payoff.

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Screen Daily
27 February 2025
75*

Straightforward survival thriller impresses with attention to small human moments in the life-or-death struggle and unfussy performances that make a compelling, touching story.

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The Times
13 March 2025 · Ed Potton
75*

The critic describes a queasy thriller about saturation divers that conveys the vastness and terror of the ocean. They praise the believable performances and Harrelson's levity amid the tension.

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The AV Club
27 February 2025 · B- · Brianna Zigler
70

It succeeds as a technical feat with chilling, claustrophobic underwater cinematography and a grounded sense of danger drawn from the real events, but falls short emotionally due to thin characterizations and forced romantic beats.

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RogerEbert.com
26 February 2025 · Simon Abrams
65*

The film delivers expected men's adventure thrills with tense underwater peril but suffers from formulaic style, overheated dialogue, and underdeveloped emotions. It succeeds most in its process-oriented action and documentary-rooted realism.

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Radio Times
★★★ · Terry Staunton
60

Keeps a firm grip on the rescue operation for genuine thrills but adherence to real events causes dragging and lacks emotional depth on the human terror.

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IndieWire
26 February 2025 · David Ehrlich
50*

The review finds the underwater thriller suspenseful but criticizes it for being all surface and no depth, with thin characterizations and emotional shortcomings despite the gripping premise.

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The New York Times
27 February 2025 · Jeannette Catsoulis
35*

A blandly directed true-life adventure that feels like cinematic comfort food, disappointingly shallow with trite stakes and lethargic pacing. Harrelson provides some amusement in a mostly stationary role.

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Empire
14 March 2025 · Helen O’Hara
30*

The film is a curiously bloodless account of a real-life disaster, undercutting its own drama by remaining too faithful to the source documentary. It singles out the lack of emotional stakes and monosyllabic characters for complaint, despite some gripping tension.

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Collider
26 February 2025 · 7/10 · Aidan Kelley
70

The critic finds the film a worthwhile claustrophobic ride thanks to excellent direction and technical spectacle in the underwater sequences, but notes it lacks heart and engaging characters compared to the documentary.

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Paste
26 February 2025 · 7.0 · A.J. Weiler
70*

The critic praises the stunning underwater cinematography, sound design, and immersive true-story tension, while noting some flat dialogue and limited character development.

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Eye for Film
8 March 2025 · Andrew Robertson
30*

The critic finds the film unconvincing and patchy, preferring the real documentary version of events; the script is wooden and the underwater sequences fail to capture the scariness of the deep sea despite the director's familiarity with the subject.

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Deadline
26 February 2025 · Gregory Nussen
25*

The critic finds the narrative film a hollow re-creation of the source documentary, underwritten and overly muscled due to its slavish devotion to facts that waters down the drama and urgency. Harrelson brings some depth as one diver, but other characters remain ciphers and the tension dissipates.

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Ordered by the weight we give each publication, then by score. Scores are normalised to 100; * means inferred from an unrated review. Summaries are ours, not quotations; follow the links for the reviews themselves. How we rate