Last Journey, The

image for Last Journey, The

Short takes

Not suitable under 12; parental guidance to 13 (themes, coarse language, lacks interest for children)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Last Journey, The
  • a review of Last Journey, The completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 3 March 2025.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 12 Not suitable due to themes, coarse language and lack of interest for this age group.
Children aged 12–13 Parental guidance recommended due to themes and lack of interest.
Children aged 14 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Last Journey, The
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild themes and coarse language
Length: 95 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Filip Hammar and Fredrick Wikingsson are a well-known Swedish TV duo who embark on a trip to France with Filip’s elderly father Lars. Lars was a much-loved French teacher for 40 years and a wonderful storyteller, who had always had a great zest for life. When he retired, he had planned to travel and enjoy life with his wife Tina but things didn’t work out as planned and Lars gradually slips into depression. Tina and Filip find it increasingly difficult to watch their ailing husband and father decline and lose the will to live.

Filip decides to try and reinvigorate Lars’ spirit by taking him on a journey they had always taken as a family, to the French Mediterranean. Filip tries to recreate many of the adventures they had experienced as a family. Eventually Filip, although hugely optimistic that he will get his father back, realises that Lars is, in fact, quite frail. He does succeed, however, in bringing joy back to Lars’ life.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Ageing; Road Trips.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • Lars has a fall out of his hotel bed, requiring him to go to hospital. It’s found he has broken some bones and requires some rehabilitation.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

  • Nothing further noted for this age group.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

  • Nothing further noted for this age group.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • Watching an adult man having to look after his father, showering him and changing his underpants when he wets himself, could be upsetting for this age group.
  • Lars has great difficulty walking but is determined to try and is in much pain.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

  • Lars talks about many of his friends who have died.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Coca Cola
  • Red Bull
  • Renault.

Sexual references

  • None noted.

Nudity and sexual activity

  • None noted.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Smoking and drinking on various occasions, including while driving a car.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Christ
  • Damn/damned
  • Freaking
  • God
  • Bastard
  • Pissed off
  • What the hell
  • Calling someone a ‘brain-dead hunchback’.

In a nutshell

The Last Journey is a docudrama about a very personal and emotional story of a man’s obvious love for his ailing father. The movie has some positive messages and is likely to appeal to an older audience.

The main messages from this movie are the importance of the legacy you leave behind and the strong bonds between a father and son.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Staying positive
  • Not giving in to despair
  • Counting your blessings.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • The need for adult children to take over the care of their elderly parents, who will eventually lose their autonomy.