A road movie with a difference, The Last Great Wilderness is set in the Scottish Highlands, where mismatched travellers Charlie (Alastair Mackenzie) and Spanish-Cockney Vicente (Jonny Phillips) end up running out of road in the middle of nowhere. Finding shelter in a rundown hotel, they discover a weird bunch of dropouts acting under the influence of a crazed psychotherapist (David Hayman).
With a strong sense of absurdity and a complete disregard for audience expectations, Wilderness has an off-kilter edge, heightened by its vaguely familiar cast (plenty of Hamish Macbeth and Monarch Of The Glen regulars) and gritty DV camerawork. It loses its sparkle as the filmmakers ditch the low-budget Wicker Man set-up for something far less disturbing, but rallies aggressively to set up a bloody finale.
Overall, it doesn't quite work, but it's good to know that the British film industry can still produce off-centre, original material - even if the result doesn't quite deliver.
