“One Last Thing” . . . Or Is It?

“One Last Thing” is about a terminally ill teenager, Dylan, who goes on TV with the "United Wish Givers" foundation and tells everyone he wants to spend the weekend with his favorite supermodel Nikki Sinclair. This controversial goal is met with skepticism from everyone, but he is steadfast in his determination. Nikki, on the other hand, has a bad rep and needs to revamp her image. She decides to visit Dylan at home, gets a photo op, and bails as quickly as possible back to New York. Bummed, Dylan however renews his quest to pursue her.

As this plot progresses, a second plot that explores Dylan's relationship with his father, Earl, develops. Earl had been terminally ill as well and had already passed away. All Dylan wants is to go fishing with his father, something that will never happen again. The only connection to his father is a few video tapes that Earl left him, having these sort of father/son chats. In one video, Earl tells Dylan that he's in the afterlife, waiting for him (But take your time on Earth, son.).

Dylan vehemently denies the existence of an afterlife. This is introduced by an unfortunate scene with a bible thumper in the hallway of his high school. This is a frustrating scene, because it portrayed Christians as rude thugs that judge others harshly. The language used by this "Christian" was clichéd, and it may be that the writer of the film had a bad experience with some unfortunately pushy Christian at some point in the past. It’s an unfortunate bias that harshly criticizes rather than explores the issues of the Christian faith.

All that aside, Dylan's quest for Nikki leads him to New York. While there, he starts seeing his dad everywhere he goes. He then meets up with some Krishna guy who affirms the existence of an afterlife. Still skeptical, Dylan nonetheless starts to soften his heart toward this possibility. This questioning is crucial, as it sets up Dylan’s experience after death. He longs to be with his father so much. Will he be with his dad in the afterlife?

The ideal Hollywood ending was a bit mushy. Do we always get what we want, even after death? And what if what we want is really lame compared to what the afterlife is really like? The ending may please audiences, but it’s a sugar coated fairy tale that sidesteps the bigger questions of what’s waiting on the other side. Will we be transported to an Earth 2.0, complete with fishing trips with our dads forever? Or is something much grander and beyond our imagining waiting for us?

“One Last Thing” certainly has heart, but not much soul.