The Last Thing He Wanted
THE LAST THING HE WANTED derives from Joan Didion's 1996 novel about plotting and covert arms deals undertaken by the U.S. government using taxpayer money to send weapons to Contras battling the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Hard-bitten American journalist Elena McMahon (Anne Hathaway) relentlessly covers the carnage in Central America, and like many war correspondents, can't forget the innocent dead she's seen when she returns to the States. It seems as if the government, run by Ronald Reagan seeking a second term, his military and intelligence agencies, and numerous private persons, used cocaine sale profits to smuggle arms to the Contras to bring down an inconvenient violent government. Her paper stops covering the war, but the implications are nefarious. Her father, Dick (Willem Dafoe), who left her 20 years before, shows up with memory loss and asks her to step in for him in an arms deal in Nicaragua. Cloak and dagger ensues. No one is who he or she appears to be. Elena gets stuck in Costa Rica, laying low as a hotel maid, waiting to be rescued by the American government. She has sex with a congressional adviser, or maybe a CIA agent (Ben Affleck). A funeral, a divorce, an unhappy adolescent daughter, and a bout with breast cancer are all thrown in.
Starring
Anne Hathaway, Ben Affleck, Willem Dafoe
Director
Dee Rees