Barret Mulholland’s Last County is an indie rehash of the generic material of the neo-Western and the neo-noir. As a story, it is not very dense except for the fact that it manages to make mindless violence erupt over a short span of time. In Last County, we meet a hapless woman, Abigail, who tries to shoo away some burglars. In the process, she only attracts more trouble. This time, however, trouble comes in the form of law enforcement personnel.
Spoilers Ahead
What is Abby dealing with?
In the aftermath of the breakdown of her marriage, Abigail, or Abby, heads to her remote home, in all probability the last one in the county. She is all alone in the large mansion, sweeping, cleaning, and pacing, waiting for her husband to arrive with their daughter. However, she is thrown into a maelstrom as two men break into her house. Abby loses it completely when one of the men shows up all bloodied. Bennet, the other man, forces Abby to procure painkillers for the dying man and help them hide. What catches Abby’s attention is the way Bennet treats Ephram gently. There is not even much hostility coming Abby’s way, except for the occasional threats. Abby calls the Pondo County Sheriff’s Department to report the burglars. Deputy Lee Hargood shows up at her door but shows no urge to transfer the men to the hospital. Instead, he goes after Bennet to retrieve a bag. As he attempts to kill Bennet in the barn, Abby kills him by hitting him hard on the head with a piece of barn equipment.Â
How does the sheriff prove to be a threat?
In this world of murder and mayhem, nothing seems to follow a set pattern. While the burglars seem humane, the cops balance it out by being outlandishly corrupt and villainous. When Deputy Hargood goes missing, Sheriff Bill McLean shows up. Despite Abby’s desperate attempt to send him away for good while pretending all looks hunky-dory, McLean realizes that there is something grave at play. He summons the other police officers to the county house, where one of them identifies Abigail. Inside the house, Abby calls her husband, Brian, and pleads with him to call the police. Abby and Bennet have an altercation as the former asks him to dump the money for the police. As she points this gun at Bennet, he reminds her that the cops outside would never let her go free, as she has already murdered one of them.
Bill McLean’s deal on splitting the money deftly establishes him as a villainous figure. He proposes he and Bennet split the money between themselves. When Bennet reminds him that he is in fact carrying the money of his higher-up, McLean states that he can help him disappear following the act. He promises to help Bennet get across the border, followed by a false report testifying to his death in a shootout, and finally with the money left, he assures him that he can start over anew. In a bizarre conclusion to this proposition, Deputy Wiley shoots Bennet and kills him. This is followed by Wiley getting shot by Deputy Devlin. Finally, the sheriff takes down Devlin and shoots Abby. Abby survives by a whisker and runs inside.
Will Abby survive in the end?
It is miraculous how Abby drags herself to walk despite bleeding profusely due to the bullet wounds. On the other hand, McLean finds Brian headed to the house with their daughter. He leads him to the house on the pretext of Abby acting irrationally. In the troubled environment, Brian gets killed too. Recognizing Abby’s vulnerability, McLean turns to her daughter in an attempt to arm-twist Abby into giving out the secret of the black bag. McLean forces her to lead them to the house so that he can get what he wants. In what appears to be a staged accident, Abby deliberately crashes the car to buy herself some time. As the two get out of the car, leaving the child inside, only one seems to have the chance of getting away. Luck favors Abby as she manages to gun down the Sheriff. In the end, Abby walks away with her daughter and their forms silhouetted against the twilight sky.
How does the film treat the theme of violence?
In the first shot of Last County, we witness a juicer machine violently churning its contents. This act sets the stage for the violence in the film that we are about to witness. Violence erupts volcanically over the course of the narrative, sometimes without even giving us any warning. Whether the muted violence in her marriage or her drug abuse, we are privy to the protagonist’s troubled private history as well as the socio-cultural hostility that she suddenly finds herself in. The finished product is a layered, mish-mashed neo-noir, where each of the participants is exposed to freshly complex brutality.Â
Abby is pulled into the violence without any heads-up. She is so fixated on saving Bennet, for some reason that is not entirely clear, that she invites more trouble for herself by murdering one of the deputies. There is no logical reason for her to do so. Even when the other deputies show up, Abby is desperate to save Bennet, without the slightest of provocations. Deputy Devlin assures Abby she can still walk away, but she chooses to stay and invite more trouble. Bennet’s collected disposition does not help him survive either. The police officers waste no time in turning against each other. In the end, the deputies die after they are shot by their own kind. There seems to be no end to this uncontrolled mayhem. It follows its own pattern and its own logic, much like the tradition of violent narratives in the films of the Coen brothers.
In Last County’s final shot, as Abby puts an end to the final villain and walks away, we are forced to deal with the sudden state of tranquility that seems to have appeared out of nowhere. It stands in a strong contrast to the annoyance, even if minuscule, of the juicer mixer whirring. The disorder is settled finally, but at a cost that is beyond imagination.Â
