Last Weekend

By: Amos Lassen

"Last Weekend" is a dark comedy about an affluent matriarch who invites her dysfunctional family to come home for a holiday weekend. She plans everything out but when it all begins falling apart, she questions her own role as mother and part of the family.

When an affluent matriarch gathers her dysfunctional family for a holiday at their Northern California lake house, her carefully constructed weekend begins to come apart at the seams, leading her to question her own role in the family. Set at Lake Tahoe during Labor Day Weekend,, we watch this comedy of matters and the family is ripped at the seams. Celia Green (Patricia Clarkson), the mother, is at a crossroads in her life. She and husband, Malcolm (Chris Mulkey) founded a fitness empire and they are among the high society of San Francisco and two of the wealthiest people in California. For the past thirty years, the couple has come to Lake Tahoe but now Celia feels that something is missing in her life. She invites her two sons (Zachary Booth and Joseph Cross) to join her for the weekend along with their partners.

As the holiday begins, Celia finds herself torn between the house-and the past that it represents-and her desire to move forward with her life. Tensions rise as the weekend continues and the four family members are joined by an eclectic group of houseguests and visitors who drop in. On Saturday morning, a terrible accident threatens to unhinge Celia's weekend. Hector (Julio Oscar Mechoso), the longtime caretaker of the Tahoe house is electrocuted as he is fixing a broken light on the dock. He is airlifted to the closest hospital and the Greens go along leaving the guests at the house and they are now to take care of themselves. In the middle of all of this, Celia must come to a decision as to whether she is ready to let go out the house. In doing so, she as well as the audience realizes, that this is the end of an era for the family and that certain steps must be taken in order to make sure that there is a new beginning.

The house location may look familiar to some movie buffs--it is the same place where Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift filmed "A Place in the Sun".