The Last Enemy

(2008)
When I was a much younger man I lived with a woman who had aspirations of being a novelist, and she gave me her manuscript to read. I slogged my way through about a hundred pages in a month and Im generally a pretty fast reader and when I told her I just couldnt get into it, she revealed the plot to me verbally, and I was stunned that such a great idea had been buried in such middling prose. I ended up with the exact same feeling regarding this BBC miniseries, which, I confess, I rented from Netflix solely because Benedict Cumberbatch (that darling of the Tumblrverse) starred in it. Benny plays Stephen Ezard, a semi-antisocial mathematician who is summoned home to the UK from China upon the death of his only brother, Michael (Max Beesley). Stephen barely makes the funeral, but discovers Michael had a powerful effect on all those whose lives he touched; he was a doctor along the Pakistani border, helping refugees, and later when Stephen visits Michaels apartment he finds a deathly sick woman in the bed. He also finds his brothers widow, Yasim (Anamaria Marinca), with whom he develops an instant rapport, although he is curious why she missed her husbands funeral. Before he can get his bearings, however, he is summoned by an old girlfriend, Eleanor (Eva Birthistle), who wants him to be the spokeman for a new government surveillance computer program called TIA Total Information Awareness. Stephen has reservations, but the government offers to fund his research for several years, so he gives in, agreeing to appear on talk shows to defend the controversial software. He is tasked to test it out; he does so, using it to investigate his brother and Yasim. Theres also a shadowy black ops type lurking in the background offing people; his name, we find out, is Russell (Robert Carlyle, the only one who can act on the execrable Once Upon a Time), who lives in a Gene Hackman Enemy of the State-style safe room in a warehouse surrounded by an electrified fence. Confused? I was, a little, especially when the dead brother turns up not dead at the end of the second episode. Theres also a trio of government baddies watching the Ezard brothers, further muddying the waters (chief among them David Harewood, who was so lively as Friar Tuck in the BBCs Robin Hood series). Theres a lot of skullduggery and criss-crossing and people using one another, and no one ever really comes clean. Further complicating matters is the love story between Stephen and Yasim, which never really feels right; the two have no chemistry, and when the dead husband suddenly isnt, it introduced unnecessary complications into an already overburdened and obsessively secretive plot. Im all for shadowy games and not knowing whats really going on, but you have to give me something to cling to at some point; they finally do with Michael, who, although not dead, soon reveals himself to have the horrible incurable disease the others are trying to get to the bottom of. By this point, somewhere in the middle of the fourth episode, weve descended down into the Wilderzone, where people live off the grid and our guide to the great unwashed underground is the requisite grungy white knob in fatigues and dreadlocks. It isnt until the last episode that Stephen figures

out whats really going on, and my socks flew off my feet because wow, its a really, really neat plot (I should spoil it so you wont have to sit through this miniseries, but I wont, in the interests of not being a dick), a great pitch, a brilliant idea, and all I could think of was that long-ago girlfriends book, you know, you had such a great idea and this was how you chose to present it, garbled with all this unnecessary crap? I felt the same way about that pretentious twaddle of a film Children of Men, but I try very, very hard not to think about that film at all. For those whose ovaries explode at the thought of Cumberbatch, yes, its worth sitting through for him. Hes reasonably good even muddling through this material, his innate presence remaining appealing even though he has no better idea of whats happening to him than you do. Beesley is acceptable as Michael, not great, but good enough, though lacking Cumberbatchs charisma he gets the short end of the viewer sympathy stick. I found Birthistle, whom I have never seen before, to be perfectly cast, fitting the role to a T of a government minister who has to play every angle. I also liked Harewood, but that was probably more leftover fondness from his sharp turn as Tuck than for anything he does here, as hes kind of a dope in this one. Carlyle is very good too sporting a (natural?) Irish brogue and excelling at being all secretive and spooky. Its a good role, the best in the movie, and hes good in it. I could never latch onto Marincas Yasim, though; I didnt find her to be either stunningly attractive (or indeed attractive at all) as the Brothers Ezard both do, nor did I find anything in her personality to draw me in. Whether this is how the character was written or performed or both Im not sure, but whichever, she simply didnt work for me, and given how crucial a role she plays, that drags down the overall production. Its hard to say its worth sitting through all the sloppy misdirection for the admittedly awesome reveal that comes partway through the fifth (and final) episode; had they told us earlier it would have run the risk of anti-climax, but maybe I would have enjoyed the proceedings more had I known the brilliant set-up behind them. Then again, a reasonably disappointing and unsatisfying ending would have spiked it no matter what. Weve seen this kind of thing done elsewhere, and better, so no need to spend five hours here, unless you just love Cumberbatch, in which case, have at it. December 22, 2012