Review of The Last Wave

The Last Wave is an atmospheric and moody film about a man's premonition that a giant wave is going to engulf Australia and most likely the world. It begins with scenes of everyday life in various parts of Australia being disrupted by freak weather patterns. Only the Aboriginal people seemed to understand what is going on. Enter a lawyer who is representing a group of Aboriginal men after an altercation in a pub ends in the death of a young man. He agrees to defend them although he is not a criminal lawyer and that is when his life starts to unravel. Strange weather and visions of an upcoming apocalypse plague the lawyer and slowly he realizes that the world is going to end. This is one of the finest films of the genre and one of my favourite Peter Weir films. The settings are dark and at times, almost Gothic. The acting is spot on and Richard Chamberlain is absolutely perfect in the role as the lawyer, a rational man caught in a terrifying situation. While it's not easy to find a copy of the movie here in Australia, if you can, see it. It is a chance to see Australian film making at it's best