Loading ...My Last Five Girlfriends (2009)
- IMDb page: My Last Five Girlfriends (2009)
- Rate: 5.8/10 total 999 votes
- Genre: Comedy
- Release Date: 19 March 2010 (Ireland)
- Runtime: UK:87 min
- Filming Location: London, England, UK
- Director: Julian Kemp
- Stars: Brendan Patricks, Naomie Harris and Kelly Adams
- Original Music By: Andy Blythe Marten Joustra
- Plot Keyword: Based On Novel | Number In Title
- (in alphabetical order)
- Alain de Botton novel
- Julian Kemp screenplay
Known Trivia
- The initials of Duncan’s five girlfriends – Wendy, Olive, Rhona, Natalie and Gemma – make up the word “wrong,” which is misspelled (perhaps deliberately) when placed in chronological order.
Plot: Duncan navigates the unsteady world of romance and relationships, going through five girlfriends in four years. Unfortunately, none of them turn out well. Full summary » »
Story: After yet another failed relationship, 30-something Duncan (Brendan Patricks) decides to quiz his last five girlfriends to find out what went wrong in order to figure out how to find love. With advice from bizarre sources and intense flights of fancy, finally Duncan realises that love is a battleground where only the fittest can survive.Written by xJROCKx61
Synopsis
Synopsis: The film begins with a frustrated, at-the-end-of-his-tether Englishman named Duncan writing a suicide note to his last five girlfriends: Wendy, Olive, Rhona, Natalie, and Gemma. He blames them all for ruining his outlook on life and love over the past four years and basically rendering him unable to live in a world where true, simple long-term love does not exist. With the note finished, he ingests a packet of pills and collapses. The film then goes back over the past four years…
Wendy: Duncan meets Wendy on a plane, and the two develop a relationship. Things go well, but then upon the arrival of Wendys ex-boyfriend Paul they start to drift apart. Duncan tries his best to keep it going, but finally concedes that Wendy still has feelings for Paul and he himself never really had a chance; he was probably just someone she’d taken up with until Paul came back.
Olive: Duncan finds Olive an unreadable enigma, and he is unable to find out what her exact tastes and likes are. Things come to a catastrophic end when at a dinner with Olive he ingests a chocolate pudding, finds it indigestible, vomits it all over the place and revolts her.
Rhona: Duncan’s relationship with Rhona is based on their differences, rather than their similarities: he finds her attractive in an unconventional and exotic manner. But when she buys a set of shoes that she thinks are beautiful but in Duncans opinion are awful, they ultimately have to confront their differences. Neither of them are willing to keep quiet about their feelings and tastes (the shoes, and other things), nor are they willing to compromise, so they break up.
Natalie: Duncan meets Natalie at a party and they spend the night together, beginning their relationship. Both of them hit it off well, with each partner copying the other’s mannerisms and even developing their own private language. Unfortunately’ neither of them is willing to commit to a long-term relationship, nor on Duncan’s assessment would they be able to maintain their attachment for that long.
Gemma: this is Duncans longest relationship. He met her at a party with Natalie, and developed an attraction towards her (which partly contributed to his failure with Natalie), and the two now get together well. They complement each other, they enjoy and understand each other and they have long-term plans together. Duncan deeply enjoys this relationship… till at a party he introduces Gemma to his working colleague Will. He leaves the two alone together and goes home, but later believes that he let Gemma sleep with Will. He tries to ignore his suspicions and distrust by taking Gemma to Paris, but it’s a complete debacle when she confesses to him that he was right, she DID sleep with Will. Unable to stay with Duncan after betraying him, Gemma ends the relationship.
Now out of his mind with despair and disillusionment, Duncan writes his suicide note, and swallows his pills. However, he survives his suicide attempt because he mistakenly took non-lethal tablets; he also realizes that the point of his suicide was to stress a point (how love has ruined him), which is useless since he wouldn’t even be around to see if it worked or not. He instead throws himself into his work and spends more time with his friends, and is able to make his life worth living and enjoying once again.
The film ends with Duncan swearing off women and relationships, since hes found it all too complicated and painful to be worth the effort… and then he meets his neighbor Angela.
FullCast & Crew
Produced By:
- Michael Kelk known as producer
- Steve O'Pray known as executive producer
- Marion Pilowsky known as producer
- David Willing known as producer
- Brendan Patricks known as Duncan
- Naomie Harris known as Gemma
- Kelly Adams known as Wendy
- Cécile Cassel known as Rhona
- Jane March known as Olive
- Edith Bukovics known as Natalie
- Michael Sheen known as Burnam
- Mark Benton known as Alan
- Johnny Ball known as Statistics Expert
- Michael Douglas known as Shoe afficianardo
- Daniel Hoffmann-Gill known as Will
- Chris Gascoyne known as Lister
- Brendan O'Hea known as Ted
- Steve Ryde known as Man on Bus
- Ian Kirkby known as Tour Guide
- Aaron Anderson known as Dinner Party Guest
- Lee Barnett known as Agent 1
- Ben Bishop known as Supermarket security
- Dave Chapman known as Guppy
- Neil Chordia known as Partygoer
- John Line known as God
- Eileen McPhearson known as Award Guest
- Lawrence O'Connor known as Rochefoucauld
- Melvin O'Doom known as Agent 2 (as Melvin Odoom)
- Sara Poyzer known as Stewardess
- Grant Sheehan known as Plane passenger
Companies
Production Companies:
- Willing Pilowsky Productions
- Wire Films
Other Companies:
- Dolby Laboratories sound mix
Distributors:
- Paramount Pictures International (2010) (UK) (theatrical)
- Paramount Pictures (2010) (Ireland) (all media)
- Tribeca Film (2010) (USA) (all media)
Other Stuff
Visual Effects by:- Chris Butters known as graphics supervisor
- Miodrag Colombo known as digital compositor
- Daniel Cullen known as digital compositor
- Steve Hawken known as digital compositor
- Lionel Heath known as compositor: PPC
- Shulamit Levin known as digital compositor
- Dan Pearce known as digital artist
- Andrea Pirisi known as digital colourist
- Andrea Pirisi known as visual effects
- USA 23 April 2009 (Tribeca Film Festival) (premiere)
- UK June 2009 (Edinburgh Film Festival)
- USA November 2009 (American Film Market)
- Ireland 19 March 2010
- UK 19 March 2010
- USA 25 January 2011 (DVD premiere)
- Mexico 8 April 2011
Filmography links and data courtesy of The Internet Movie Database
My Last Five Girlfriends (2009) Related Movie
25 Nov 2011, 10:30 pm
I'm not really a great one for rom-coms, this was a definite wife-pick and I went in with limited expectations. However, it didn't take long for a fairly rapid re-appraisal. The basic premise – a series of takes on why some relationships don't work out from the perspective of a slightly geeky bloke (apparently, this is grossly unfair as my wife informs me that he's pretty hot stuff) – is not desperately original, but the manner of its execution is both well above the average and decidedly original.
The film is crammed with witty and ingenious ideas – the Barbie doll vignette to summarise the 'girl on a plane' back-story is inspired, as is the Theme Park concept of a different ride for each girlfriend. Nice. The cameos are perfectly-pitched, in particular Michael Sheen and Johnny Ball, and the effervescent Vitamin C tablet fake ending was equally well-judged. The pace is fast and there's little, if any, slack in the tight script – indeed, if I had a minor grumble, it would be that I felt the film would have benefited from a little more time spent on character development of girlfriends 1-4.
Effective as a comedy on a number of levels, it even managed to slot in some painful relationship truisms – the 'cereal box' effect at the start of a relationship, yet another clever idea – that had the audience chuckling in knowing appreciation.
It left me wanting more, and I hope that commercial success beckons, because this film thoroughly merits it. 7/10 (which is admittedly a bit mean, and more down to me not really liking the genre).
25 Nov 2011, 10:30 pm
25 Nov 2011, 10:30 pm
So I'm the first one to have seen this in a cinema without any of the cast and crew being present? Well, that didn't influence my opinion! This little film crept in with no fanfare, and only the title indicating that it perhaps belonged in romcom territory (not without laughs, although it has rather more drama than comedy).
Storywise it hold no great surprises, but the way it unfolds is something of a triumph, displaying great originality in writing and direction. Much of what appears on screen is an absolute delight.
The only cast members I had heard of (apart from cameos) were Naomie Harris and Jane March, but all were good.
But I urge you to go and see it without reading too much about it, for fear of encountering spoilers,
25 Nov 2011, 10:30 pm
** SPOILERS ** It seems that something fresh (and dare I say, 'real') is emerging in film in the past year or so. My Last Five Girlfriends is a perfect example of this phenomenon as is How To Train Your Dragon and even (to a lesser extent) 500 Days of Summer. In my opinion, there are other films who attempt this kind of reality, but only these above have really made a mark.
This movie should not been assumed to be a rom-com as it is far more than that. Its an honest look at human relationships and it bravely dances around major existential issues such as the struggle to be loved, fear of death, suicide and the meaning of life.
The acting was great and while I imagine the budget was quite small, it didn't show. Attention to detail is what made the difference here. The only quibble I have is that the end could have been a lot more powerful as it suffered a similar fate as 500 Days of Summer. Well worth a watch as it undoubtedly prompts self-reflection.
25 Nov 2011, 10:30 pm
I have to say that I decided to watch this after reading the other 4 reviews on this movie. Now I wish I didn't. It failed to impress me on so many levels. A large part of the movie is narrated, which may work well under certain circumstances and when done in the right conditions but for me… well, narration in a movie should have a much smaller part to play (while introducing some scenes, or explaining a few things) not constitute almost one third of it.
Moreover, I don't know if the director intended it to be this way, but the whole emotional picture of the movie seems so bleak and sordid. On top of that you're never really being told why the main character is being dumped by all of his 5 girlfriends in a row.
I mean, it's kind of obvious that he exhibits some type of wuss-like behavior, at least with some of them, but you never get to really learn the women's perspective on the matter, or see the character having an epiphany on the reasons why his sentimental life has been a complete failure so far. He doesn't seem to be capable to understand why women run off him and by the end of the movie he isn't any wiser on the matter then at the beginning. Perhaps a little more depressed.
Due to that fact, the meeting with the last girl in the end of the movie, instead of shedding a ray of hope on his future love life, it kind of leaves you with the sentiment that he's probably going to screw that up, as well.
I have to admit, it has a few moments when it gets a little warmer and it gives you the feeling that it might get better from there on. But then it ultimately disappoints.
As I said, totally unimpressive and forgettable, in my book. But that's just my two cents' worth.