I always appreciate and love seeing Emily Browning’s name on a cast list, and even more-so when she is making movies in her home country of Australia. ONE MORE SHOT arrived at my home office with a wink and a smile and a nod to a much younger time in my life when it all seemed about the music and that next event.
About: New Years Eve. 1999. Minnie discovers a bottle of time travelling tequila. Each shot takes her back to the start of the night – giving her a bottle’s worth of shots to win back her old flame Joe, and change the course of her millennium. (From the SxSW program)
Reaction: Almost like GROUNDHOG DAY but involving a bottle of tequila, ONE LAST SHOT is a type of romantic comedy that features the talents of the massively underrated Emily Browning, though I am not sure how much crossover appeal this Australian important about one night where Minnie (Browning) is trying to get her ex back, and gets an opportunity every time she takes a shot from her tequila bottle. The movie shines on Browning’s terrific lead performance, and some of the supporting performances are good here too with a mix of notable Australian talent.
With that said, ONE LAST SHOT doesn’t always work with a few too many characters bouncing off of each other, but it does get some fun comedy out of the time-repeating narrative and Browning’s lead performance. It also gets very long-winded in the second half with some very questionable decisions that Minnie makes that gave me a hard time liking her character. Even so, the movie has some fun moments and throwbacks to some hit songs of the late 90s that made me want to a double bill of 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU and AMERICAN PIE.
This is one of the many movies playing in this year’s South By Southwest Film & TV Festival. For more information on the festival, point your browser to www.sxsw.com!