One Last Thing follows the story of a lonely dentist named Dylan Derringer, played by Wendell Pierce, as he embarks on a journey to reconnect with his long-lost daughter, Lucy, played by Jurnee Smollett-Bell.
This is a rather small and quiet film. There weren’t any huge blow ups, fantastical elements, or unnecessary sub-plots to detract from the main story; this was a very simple, grounded, and straightforward film and that was definitely refreshing, to say the least.
I think that too many times filmmakers/writers feel the need to do too much when it comes to their stories, it’s almost like they don’t believe in their main story enough, so they decide to add in all of these unnecessary elements thinking that it will save their film when all it does is just bring it down. I appreciate the fact that this film feels comfortable enough within itself to the point where there isn’t that need to do more than what’s necessary.
That being said, I do wish that there was a bit more to this film. Not more in terms of drama or excitement or anything like that, but the movie does come off a bit repetitive after a while. I understand that Dylan is lonely and that before embarking on this journey there wasn’t much to his life outside of dentistry and golf, but I do think that had we seen more examples of just how lonely he was, we would be able to sympathize with him even more.
While I understand that they’re taking the time to learn more about each other, the movie creates this pattern of being at the office, playing golf, and then going out on these Father-Daughter dates, When he finally does meet Lucy it does leave you wanting a bit more. I think that at the very least had we gotten a bit more introspection from both characters that it would’ve helped immensely with that small problem.
Overall, this was a pretty good film with a good story and good acting. Besides the gripes that I mentioned, I really couldn’t ask for too much more in a film.
