When he is thrown out by his mother, he moves in to a downbeat DHSS hovel where
he meets Kenny, his disabled brother, and their alcoholic father.
As Kenny, not the sharpest knife in the drawer, listens in awe and respect to
Frank's banter, he falls for the story that he's ex-SAS and begins to hatch a
plan to bring revenge down upon the couple who put his brother in a wheelchair,
the victim of a violent assault.
When Frank is asked to act as vigilante, his bluff is called, and the pair head
off to London, to kill the man known as 'Doughnut' and his girlfriend.
Which is when, everything goes drastically wrong.
This insightful drama received an extremely limited run on the screen, and only
in a few select cinemas. Its release on DVD in 4:3 format betrays its origins
as a made for TV movie.
Rated as "hilarious", that is far from the truth, unless one has a particularly
perverse view of the human condition. It is a sad, and somewhat depressing view
of everyday life taking an unusual turn. In many respects it has the same feel
as Mike Leigh's Meantime, and is as funny as
This Year's Love.
Both Addy and Creed-Miles deliver superb performances as the unlikely, but
convincing, assassins way out of their depth. Cranham plays the cameo part of
the alcoholic father, still grieving for the loss of his 'better son'. Morton
brings a life to the character of the girlfriend hostage, who spends most of
her time tied to a chair.
It is the interplay between the characters, notably between Frank and Kenny,
which gives The Last Yellow its heart and soul. It is a story of
friendship overcoming adversity in an isolated and entrapping world.
That said, there was something lacking, which left the feeling that nothing
had been resolved. The venture had been undertaken, a friendship created, but
the loose ending failed to wrap-up the story in a satisfactory way.
A brilliant dramatical work, successfully migrated from the stage, but it is
far removed from the comedic escapade it claimed to be.
