I never thought I'd be bored by an Edgar Wright movie. His films are always visually dynamic and attention grabbing; his scripts have quick-witted and memorable characters. His knack for needle drops and sound design make his films a joy to listen to. Say what you want about his previous films, but they are never boring and undeniably Edgar Wright.
But parts of LAST NIGHT IN SOHO bored me half to death. The opening minutes show none of his visual flair, are poorly written and acted and include a plot point that should portend the lead character's struggles or act as a red herring. It does neither, instead feeling like a half-baked idea that explains something that didn't need an explanation.
LAST NIGHT is by far his weakest film. His visual style is apparent, but it's muted. Quite a few of the locations look flat, as if there was no thought put into how they would appear on screen. His vision of mid-60s London pops with color, but modern London isn't afforded the same care until a single sequence in the film's third act. It appears drab and dreary in the rest of the film.
Wright's style doesn't work well for the ghost story LAST NIGHT becomes, either. The ghosts (and yes, there are ghosts) don't mesh well with the rest of the visual design. They look more like the Silence than any ghosts that should exist in the film's world.
The script is predictable, rote and quickly loses the plot. "Girl kinda sorta time travels in her dreams" is a tough premise to execute, and LAST NIGHT doesn't stick the landing; it's a muddled mess from almost the first frame. Certain plot points end up going nowhere. Others come OUT of nowhere, with nothing to reward viewers who are able to piece together what's going on before the characters.
Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy and the rest of the cast do what they can with what they're given, but they can only take it so far. By the LAST NIGHT's third act, it has no cards left to play. The film shows flashes of greatness, but never quite puts it together.