Last Cab to Darwin (2015) – Truly evocative journeys

Once again we in the U.S. find ourselves finally getting a chance to see a foreign film over a year after it played overseas.

The journeys taken in The Last Cab to Darwin lead the audience on a beautiful, evocative experience. One journey is the physical road trip across almost two thousand miles from New South Wales to the Northern Territory of Australia. The other journey is the protagonist, Rex, finally finding out what others mean to him, what love really is and the kindness of strangers. Rex’s trips, coming after being told his cancer is not treatable and he only has a short time left, are on the way to his seeking an assisted suicide in the sole region that had approved it. Today, the federal government has banned it everywhere in Australia.

In addition to the moral and emotional implications of euthanasia, the movie deals with Australian Apartheid, a young man’s struggle to find the courage to succeed, love between races, and people finding their true selves. Rex is forced to go from his belief that he is a loner to the realization that he is part of something larger. His relationships mean more to him than he even let on to himself and he means more to his friends than he imagined. The film’s look into the lives of the Indigenous people in towns and in the bush is handled without getting overly political.

The cinematography is very special. There are several beautiful long shots of the countryside. The medium shots, as they should, help define the locale of the scene in an introductory manner. Although there are many close-ups, it is interesting to note that it is the mid-close up that is used for conversations. We see both participants at the same time rather than the traditional over the shoulder from the other person’s point of view.  Hence we are primarily observers. Cinematographer Steve Arnold never gives us a dark view. Inside or out the mise-en-scène has a warm, crisp look. There is a generous sprinkling of comedy cleverly interspersed into the drama which helps the movie from becoming morose.