“Getting old is not for cowards,” it says. But even if the aging process-purely organically speaking-begins with birth, which is why even teenagers tend to describe 30-year-olds as old people: when are you actually old? Most of them probably associate entry into retirement, at 65 to 70 years. With a little luck, a few or even many eventful years will follow until the state of health leads to noticeable restrictions. It is not only a challenge for those affected themselves, but often also for their relatives. So also for the Swedish filmmaker and journalist Filip Hammar, whose father has significantly reduced in recent years.
The once so fun -loving Lars spends his retirement – to the dismay of his very active wife Tiina – almost exclusively in his beloved wing chair. The ex-teacher can no longer see well and is bad on foot, but in a medical point of view there are actually no serious problems. Filip therefore observes with concern how his father becomes more and more apathetic and finally slips into a depression. Old Super 8 films and sound recordings show a completely different picture-a happy, lively man full of zest for action: Lars wanted to enjoy his retirement, take a lot with Tiina, maybe even move to France, into the land of his dreams. But now? “That should be our golden years,” says Tiina. “But he's just sitting around.”
Really in squeak-orange
The matter is clear to the son: only air change helps. So with the help of his best friend and co-director Fredrik Wikingsson, he plans a vacation in France for Lars-as before, when the whole family drove from Sweden to the Mediterranean in the summer, more precisely after Beaulieu Sur Mer on the Côte d'Azur. And because Lars had an R4 at the time, someone has to be in the same squeaky orange and of course with the typical pistol circuit. As soon as it starts, the trio is stopped: Lars falls and has to go to the hospital.
Fortunately, the injury is not serious, whereupon Filip and Fredrik decide. Lars is supposed to add to the French border. This is how it happens, and now the tour really starts – a journey that will be at least as important and beautiful for Lars as for Filip, and on which both will get to know and love each other again. And best of all: you have it in the cinema documentary that is repeatedly moving to tears “One last trip“Captured.
Lars still comes up with joie de vivre in the Quietschbunt orange R4.
At the beginning, Lars and Filip seem to understand each other, but they don't have a very close bond. That changes the longer you are. They get closer to each other, their relationship becomes more intimate, if only because Filip has to go to his father with many everyday activities. Lars needs support in showering and going to bed, sometimes also when eating and drinking. In fact, Lars is getting better, actually as soon as he sits in the R4 again. Filip even leaves it at the wheel, but when the engine is switched off. “He is almost blind,” Filip also says to Fredrik, while the two buddies push the car the short distance – about 10 meters – into France. This has something touching and something very, very lovable, and this mood runs through the entire film.
Technically, it is a documentary, but in a very personable and unobtrusive way, the film evades the usual categorizations. On the one hand, he is part of the genre of personal documentary, as with David Sieveking, who made a film about his demented mother, among other things, in which he brought himself very strongly (“don't forget mine”). But this is actually not about Filip – nothing can be experienced about his private life. The focus is on Lars and the relationship between father and son. Filip is rather unintentional to meet the second main character, through his lovable way, to meet the father, through his mistakes he sees, and through the changes he goes through.
French chansons and rumpumpel waltz
Fredrik, on the other hand, sometimes looks like a foreign body in the film. Maybe that's the only small weakness of the film, because Fredrik's actual function remains vague. He is a kind of unobtrusive helper, always when you need it, sometimes to chat, because life with Lars is a real challenge for Filip. Apparently he hadn't expected his father need so much support.
It is striking to deal with some obviously staged scenes: the fact that a film is made here is not at all discussed, so there is no fact that there is a small team that accompanies the filmmakers. By looking at the outside, the recordings sometimes get an almost fictional character. And of course this is intentional, as is the effect of music in an exquisite melange: Melancholic French chansons meet in Scandinavian Rumpumpel Waltz-that is in a good mood and works very well.
Father and son get closer on the journey than presumably they would have ever imagined.
The old Super 8 films that show the young Lars and his family are provided against the pictures of the trip-this ensures variety and a little nostalgia. The biggest highlights, however, are the mood -lifting sensations that Lars came up with for his father. This includes a game scene that is planned by Filip in front of a street café, which Lars observes together with the apparently uninvolved Filip – with a specially committed cast that is supposed to embody the concentrated charm of France while Fredrik directs in the background.
Like a little boy, Filip plays an incredibly lovable prank to his father. The actual highlight is a film screening on the beach at the end: Filip presents his father a compilation in which many former students talk about him – and the reactions of Lars and Filips are at least as touching as the loving memories in the video.
Conclusion: The lovable, lively documentary about an unusual father-son road trip was selected as a Swedish contribution for the 97th Oscar Awards. No wonder, because “one last trip” has so much wit, charm and warmth that you not only close the protagonists to the heart, but also the whole thing around it, including R4. In addition, the consistently amiable atmosphere, which increases more and more in the course of the film, is not to mention the beautiful pictures from France. Not only father and son benefit from this trip, but also the whole happy audience.