'The Last' review: Imagine learning that your beloved great-grandmother is a Nazi

During a nice, sunny day at the beach, Claire, the 92-year-old matriarch of a Jewish family in New York, decides to make a confession to her great-grandson and his wife. Armed with old photos and diaries, she tells Josh and Olivia something they never expected to hear: She is actually a gentile who worked as a nurse for the Nazis at Auschwitz during World War II. She arrived in the States posing as a Jewish refugee, a guise she never has dropped. 

It gets even worse. This isn't some kind of late-life plea for forgiveness from Claire. Instead, she shows no trace of repentance. "I still consider myself a member of the Party," she declares. And she's full of anti-Semitic venom: "The bastardization of the English language" she spits out upon hearing the word "Holocaust." 

"You'll have to re-compartmentalize how you remember me," she dryly informs Josh, very matter-of-factly.

Claire's confession is essentially a 45-minute monologue that unfolds during a series of scenes. The role of Claire proves to be a tour de force for character actress Rebecca Schull, best-known for her work in the '90s sitcom "Wings." Claire is cheerful and pleasant on the surface, but you glimpse the icy steel underneath. It's a riveting, chilling piece of work. 

Once she's dropped the bombshells (believe it or not, Claire has other secrets to reveal), the movie examines how the family reacts to the situation. Josh (AJ Cedeño, quite good), a Modern Orthodox Jew, wants her tried for war crimes. His mother is shocked by her grandmother's revelations while her agnostic husband deals with it another way, as he intends to use her story as the basis for a graphic novel. Olivia (Jill Durso) has a murkier response, though the character is intriguing: She was a Catholic who has converted and fully embraced Judaism, and she's challenged by Claire during the big revelation. 

Writer-director Jeff Lipsky has come up with a wildly compelling premise; however he is hardly the most cinematic of filmmakers. He is almost anti-cinematic, if there is such a thing. He tends to write scenes that consist of thick, chunky monologues. It's not exactly theatrical; instead it can be awkward and stilted, a feeling heightened by some amateurish performances (Durso, in particular, seems out of her depth). The actors must have been tested for how they react during scenes, because a lot of their time is spent watching cast members reciting one of those monologues.

INTERVIEW: Rebecca Schull on her stunning work in 'The Last'

Lipsky makes odd choices in pacing and editing. The first 15 minutes consist of talky scenes that are set weeks (or months) apart; then, jarringly, it becomes a series of moments in which each new scene is announced with a title card for each day of the week. Even some technical stuff is off-putting: How come when Olivia speaks to Josh on her cell phone, it sounds like they're in the same room? 

But for all its missteps, the movie works in spite of itself. Much of that is due to the raw appeal of the storyline. It's the type of premise that simply makes one wonder what they would do in a similar situation, which is usually a good sign. And Schull's quietly commanding performance is a stunning piece of acting, in which the character seems to reveal new layers every time she's on screen. 

This is also true during the film's final shocking twist, a brave, bold move by Lipsky that leaves things hanging on an ambiguous note that is both daring and quite satisfying.    

Reach the reporter at randy.cordova@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8849. Twitter.com/randy_cordova. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

‘The Last,’ 3.5 stars

Director: Jeff Lipsky.

Cast: Rebecca Schull, Reed Birney, AJ Cedeño. 

Rating: Not rated. 

Note: At Harkins Shea.   

Great ★★★★★ Good ★★★★

Fair ★★★ Bad ★★ Bomb ★