The Last Sunrise

Synopsis:  A young woman travels to Mallorca and tries to manage her medical condition and a new love interest.

A typical screen romance set-up for a woman in her late teens = Pretty girl + her dream + dreamy locale + hot guy + complication. In the case of The Last Sunrise there is Oriah + dance + Mallorca + Julian + her medical condition.

Before Oriah aka Ry (Maia Reficco) goes on her mom’s work trip, we see her dancing as part of a modern dance troupe. Oh no! Ry collapses onstage. In the next scene, Ry and her mom, Isolde (Eva Longoria) are consulting with a doctor about the seizures that are caused by her condition. She has tubers in her brain. Tubers? Aren’t those potatoes? Did the writer of the book The Last Sunrise, Anna Todd, consult The Old Farmer’s Almanac instead of WebMD? But it turns out that Ry does indeed have tubers, not tumors, in her brain. Surgical removal of the little potatoes in her head could stop her seizures but Ry is afraid that she will lose her memory, so she says she’ll choose medication.

Ry’s mom, who gives boss lady vibes, agrees with whatever Ry decides and they head off with about a hundred pills. Destination: Mallorca, part of Spain’s Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean. The mom is an exec at a hotel-building corporation, so they get to fly private on a corporate jet. While Isolde makes deals to buy waterfront property and picks out drapery, Ry will have access to a driver to get her around the island for shopping and sightseeing.

When Isolde and Ry get to their luxe hotel, they’re ushered to their rooms. One of the hotel reception employees, Amara (Chloé Sweetlove), a German woman about Ry’s age, welcomes her in an overly familiar fashion. This is not very Teutonic behavior. Amara seems more like an android who has been programmed to be Ry’s instant best friend. She coos and cuddles while she goes over the hotel’s amenities. She recommends a local beach to Ry.

The next day, Ry takes a short walk into town, and from there she cuts over to a short path to the recommended beach. Ry gets settled on her towel in her modest one-piece suit. She looks around and notices that all of the swimmers and sunners are naked. I guess that Amara the hotel receptionist really is German; to her this is just a regular beach.

Ry can’t help but stare at an Adonis who is emerging from the surf. He lingers at the shoreline, surveying surf and sand. He approaches Ry: This beach is for locals. What a dick. Ry stands her ground. But she seemed unnerved after this guy chastised her, so leaves and walks back into town. Even though the place seems to be a one-street village, she gets hopelessly lost. (To be fair, same would happen with me.) She asks people for directions in English. She doesn’t know any Spanish or Catalan even though her mom lived here until she was and adult and they live in Houston, Texas. Wait… she does know some Spanish. She says Gracias to the Spanish-speakers who try to communicate with her.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, she runs into the guy from the beach, Julian (Fernando Lindez). He’s wearing clothes now. She’s glad to see him, presumably because he’s cute and she approved of the bits and bobs she saw at the beach. He immediately starts negging her, calling her “American Girl.” She calls him out on his bulls***. He chuckles and offers to buy her a snack. Good! She must be famished from walking around the same street for hours.

During the walk back to the hotel Julian tells her that he is a fisherman and that tourism is ruining his way of life. Actually, his way of life –we shall see—is comprised of wandering the streets, going to the nude beach and going clubbing. So, tourism actually fits well with his lifestyle. It turns out that his dad is the kind of fisherman who actually goes out on a boat and catches fish, not someone with the hereditary title of fisherman.

Over the next few sun-filled days, Ry’s mom, Isolde, works and periodically checks on her daughter. We are lucky, as viewers, because one afternoon, workaholic Isolde hires flamenco dancers to put on a private show on an outside deck. Isolde keeps working, looking at her laptop and fabrics. But occasionally, mother and daughter catch each other’s eye and smile.

Remember that Ry has a serious potato-ish disease in her brain? Her mom asks if she’s taking her meds. Yes, lies Ry. You see, a few times a day, an alarm goes off on her cellphone and she needs to pause and take her pills. F*** this, Ry decides.

YOLO! She wants to live her life without worrying about spending a minute to take medication. Julian invites her for a motorcycle ride. Amara invites her clubbing. But also, FAFO. Deep in Ry’s tuber-ridden brain, the starchy bulbs are getting electrified.

One night, Ry is out clubbing when she runs into Julian. He will manage to be shirtless before the night is done. And because this is the movies, she will be eager to have sex with the hot guy – yes, that makes sense—but on a smelly fishing boat. Blech…

Ry wisely doesn’t mention that her mom is working 24/7 to build a hotel in the fishing dock area because she wants to keep having sex with Julian. Props to Julian for keeping condoms on the smelly fish-murdering boat.

We figure that Ry will, inevitably, have a seizure since she has skipped about 80 pills, but will survive because she is narrating the story via purple prose diary entries. The stakes are raised. Julian has an enemy, Carlos (Alex Peracaula). One night he confronts him and for some reason they argue in English. Maybe they both want to practice their language skills so that they can pick up English-speaking tourists.

Alas, Carlos beats the sh** out of his fellow islander. When Julian shows up at Ry’s room the next day, his face is all bruised and Ry is like, Oh, No! But Julian reassures her that it’s nothing, but they’ll have to lay low. They do that by strolling around town all day. How will the lovers manage?!

In slower moments, like when they are motorcycling around, I couldn’t help but wonder if the Pretty girl + her dream + dreamy locale + hot guy + complication formula could regularly bring in viewers. Say… Jerica aka Jeh + calligraphy + Daytona Beach, Florida (haha) + Nymandus aka Man + a new tattoo that is itchy as hell.  How will Jeh deliver on those last wedding invitations with distracting itchiness? Can Man safely usher Jeh through the smashed Spring Break cretins? Sure… I’d watch that.

Movie Loon’s Movie Review Shortcut:

Grade: C

Cut to the Chase:  The leads don’t have much chemistry. Still, it’s an escapist enough diversion. And the music is surprisingly good: Bad Bunny, Billie Eilish, Karol G & Sombr (I know, but he’s got some catchy stuff).

Humor Highlight:  Ry, miffed at Julian, sings vengeful karaoke at him.