The Last Journey

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Victoria's Statewide Mornings program on March 6, 2025.

(PG) ★★

Director: Filip Hammar & Fredrik Wikingsson.

Cast: Filip Hammar, Lars Hammar, Fredrik Wikingsson, Tiina Hammar.

Gramps was dead-set on a Vegas road trip for his buck's party.

Getting old sucks. Being made to do things you don't want to do also sucks. If you put both these sucky ideas together you would have The Last Journey, the highest-grossing Swedish documentary of all time.

Not that The Last Journey totally sucks. It is annoyingly contrived and often uncomfortable to watch, but its heart is in the right place and it does offer up some sweetly sentimental moments. However, the whole thing is an awkward and unfortunately answerless discussion on ageing.

Swedish TV star Filip Hammar is struggling to deal with his 80-year-old dad Lars' decline into old age, and surprises him with a trip to the south of France - the location of their past family holidays - in an effort to spark some life back into the old man.

With his buddy and fellow Swedish TV star Fredrick Wikingsson squeezed into the back of a Renault 4, the trio set about recreating Lars' past glory days on the Mediterranean and revitalising his life.

The Last Journey, like its star Filip, is well intentioned but ultimately misguided. The doco is occasionally successful at hitting you in the feels, but in between it can be a tough watch.

In the early part of the film, Filip's efforts to drag his father along on this final vacation are ill-conceived and even ignorant. While Filip and his mother agree it's the best medicine for Lars, his health and in-built pessimism make it painful to watch him passively try to back out of the project, all the while Filip is manipulating him into staying in. 

Some of these awkward vibes continue through-out the doco. Filip is obviously doing this as much for himself as he is doing it for Lars, but there is no self-awareness or revelation for Filip by movie's end. Instead, it feels very self-serving or self-congratulatory when he and Fredrich's contrived plans come together. And Filip regularly seems oblivious to the physical ravages of age, urging his dad to play guitar or chop vegetables or walk without his walker more often than is comfortable to watch.

That's not to say The Last Journey is a waste of time. It has a lot of heart in among the prank show-style set-ups, and the trip genuinely seems to reinvigorate Lars, although it would have been nice to get an understanding of how much pep it put in his step via a more detailed post-script.

But for the most part, it feels about half an hour too long, and gives us no real answers to the questions it poses about living our last days in the best ways.