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Review: Shirley MacLaine rules 'Last Word' with her control-freak character

  • Amanda Seyfried, left, Shirley MacLaine and Ann'Jewel Lee in "The Last Word."

    Beth Dubber/Bleecker Street

updated: 3/10/2017 12:03 PM

It's only March and we already have an early contender for the Academy Award for Best Actress Who's a Hollywood Legend, plus the leading contender for AARP magazine's best picture of 2017.

"The Last Word" stars veteran performer Shirley MacLaine as wealthy, 81-year-old divorcee and force of nature Harriet Lauler, a control freak who evolves on cue from a suicidal, lonely old geezer to a life-affirming, nurturing woman of the world, all in well under two hours.

Mark Pellington's by-the-numbers sentimental comic drama (built around three generations of bonding females) offers MacLaine the sort of character she could knock off while sleepwalking. Have you seen her as the distraught, control-freak mom in "Terms of Endearment"? That's Harriet 34 years ago.

"The Last Word" opens with Harriet attempting suicide after being trapped in dark, empty film frames reeking of loneliness and isolation.

She abruptly becomes interested in how people will remember her, specifically, what will her obituary say?

In the small (and fictional) town of Bristol, California, Harriet tracks down Anne (Amanda Seyfried), obit writer for the local Bristol Gazette. She pressures the editor (Tom Everett Scott) into forcing Anne to become her personal obituary writer.

Harriet begins to work on the four areas she needs to improve in order to qualify for a proper obit: She must be loved by her family, admired by her co-workers and improve someone's life (preferably "a minority or a cripple" she says). And then there's the "wild card," a special life achievement.

Harriet's estranged daughter, Elizabeth (Anne Heche), hates her. A precocious 9-year-old girl from the projects, Brenda (Ann'Jewel Lee), goes along with Harriet's mentor plans, but thinks she's crazy.

By the time all four obit criteria get met, Anne, Harriet and Brenda hate each other and split up.

Just kidding.

"The Last Word" hits all the expected notes in this recycled symphony of sentimental conventions, highlighted by Seyfried's luminous blue orbs and MacLaine's sheer star powers.

Nothing happens here we don't see coming. Still, MacLaine makes it work well on arrival.