--- title: "Last Breath: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/last-breath-2025/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/last-breath-2025" critics_score: 64 critics_reviews: 17 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Last Breath (2025): what the critics said Critics' score 64 from 17 reviews: 10 positive, 3 mixed, 4 negative. Most critics come away tense and mostly satisfied. Ten of the seventeen reviews are positive, and the praise gathers in one place: the procedural detail of saturation diving, and the way Parkinson builds suspense out of valves, gauges and radio chatter rather than speeches. The underwater camerawork earns repeated mention for its claustrophobia and its sense of the ocean’s size, and several reviews single out Woody Harrelson for supplying what warmth and humour the film has. The spread is wide. Even admirers concede the characters are thin and the emotional payoff smaller than the peril deserves, and the negative reviews make that their whole case. Deadline and Empire argue that fidelity to Parkinson’s own documentary drains the drama, leaving ciphers where men should be, and Eye for Film finds the deep less frightening here than in the real footage. The New York Times goes further and calls it bland comfort food. Nobody disputes that it is tense; the argument is over whether tension is enough. ## Vulture Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 28 February 2025. The critic praises it as a shockingly good, breathtaking thriller that builds tangible suspense through detailed process and technology, delivering heart-attack tension and documentary-like clarity in a lean, elegant package. [Read the review](https://www.vulture.com/article/review-the-shockingly-good-deep-sea-thriller-last-breath.html) ## The Hollywood Reporter — Frank Scheck Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 26 February 2025. The critic calls it a gripping, taut adventure thriller that pares the story to essentials without wasting time and ratchets up tension effectively in a claustrophobic setting. It praises the authentic depiction of the events, the director's command of suspense, and strong supporting performances. [Read the review](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/last-breath-review-woody-harrelson-simu-liu-1236146613/) ## The Guardian Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 16 March 2025. The critic calls it an unbearably tense deep-sea drama based on real events. They praise the camerawork above and below water that plunges viewers into the survival thriller. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/mar/16/last-breath-review-riveting-real-life-deep-sea-drama-wood-harrelson-simu-liu-finn-cole-alex-parkinson-north-sea-chris-lemons) ## Time Out — Sophie Monks Kaufman Rating 4/5. 13 March 2025. Parksinson's remake of his documentary delivers adrenaline through procedural detail of saturation diving and the team's solidarity under pressure. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/last-breath-review-2025) ## Variety — Owen Gleiberman Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 26 February 2025. A compact, journalistic true-life rescue thriller that sticks to facts without hype, effectively building suspense through specific details of saturation diving and the accident. Parkinson's debut impresses with its nuts-and-bolts tension and low-key payoff. [Read the review](https://variety.com/2025/film/reviews/last-breath-review-woody-harrelson-1236318532/) ## Screen Daily Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 27 February 2025. Straightforward survival thriller impresses with attention to small human moments in the life-or-death struggle and unfussy performances that make a compelling, touching story. [Read the review](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/last-breath-review-woody-harrelson-dives-into-real-life-survival-story/5202197.article) ## The Times — Ed Potton Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 13 March 2025. The critic describes a queasy thriller about saturation divers that conveys the vastness and terror of the ocean. They praise the believable performances and Harrelson's levity amid the tension. [Read the review](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/last-breath-film-review-woody-harrelson-d3b3lmgmx) ## The AV Club — Brianna Zigler Rating B-. 27 February 2025. It succeeds as a technical feat with chilling, claustrophobic underwater cinematography and a grounded sense of danger drawn from the real events, but falls short emotionally due to thin characterizations and forced romantic beats. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/last-breath-review) ## RogerEbert.com — Simon Abrams Fi1m's normalised score 65/100 (inferred from the text). 26 February 2025. The film delivers expected men's adventure thrills with tense underwater peril but suffers from formulaic style, overheated dialogue, and underdeveloped emotions. It succeeds most in its process-oriented action and documentary-rooted realism. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/last-breath-movie-review-2025) ## Radio Times — Terry Staunton Rating 3/5. Keeps a firm grip on the rescue operation for genuine thrills but adherence to real events causes dragging and lacks emotional depth on the human terror. [Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-wuvygw/last-breath/) ## IndieWire — David Ehrlich Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 26 February 2025. The review finds the underwater thriller suspenseful but criticizes it for being all surface and no depth, with thin characterizations and emotional shortcomings despite the gripping premise. [Read the review](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/last-breath-movie-review-woody-harrelson-saturation-diving-1235099126/) ## The New York Times — Jeannette Catsoulis Fi1m's normalised score 35/100 (inferred from the text). 27 February 2025. A blandly directed true-life adventure that feels like cinematic comfort food, disappointingly shallow with trite stakes and lethargic pacing. Harrelson provides some amusement in a mostly stationary role. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/27/movies/last-breath-review.html) ## Empire — Helen O’Hara Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 14 March 2025. The film is a curiously bloodless account of a real-life disaster, undercutting its own drama by remaining too faithful to the source documentary. It singles out the lack of emotional stakes and monosyllabic characters for complaint, despite some gripping tension. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/last-breath-2025/) ## Collider — Aidan Kelley Rating 7/10. 26 February 2025. The critic finds the film a worthwhile claustrophobic ride thanks to excellent direction and technical spectacle in the underwater sequences, but notes it lacks heart and engaging characters compared to the documentary. [Read the review](https://collider.com/last-breath-2025-review/) ## Paste — A.J. Weiler Rating 7.0. 26 February 2025. The critic praises the stunning underwater cinematography, sound design, and immersive true-story tension, while noting some flat dialogue and limited character development. [Read the review](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/last-breath/last-breath-review-diving-movie-woody-harrelson-simu-liu) ## Eye for Film — Andrew Robertson Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 8 March 2025. The critic finds the film unconvincing and patchy, preferring the real documentary version of events; the script is wooden and the underwater sequences fail to capture the scariness of the deep sea despite the director's familiarity with the subject. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/last-breath-2025-film-review-by-andrew-robertson) ## Deadline — Gregory Nussen Fi1m's normalised score 25/100 (inferred from the text). 26 February 2025. The critic finds the narrative film a hollow re-creation of the source documentary, underwritten and overly muscled due to its slavish devotion to facts that waters down the drama and urgency. Harrelson brings some depth as one diver, but other characters remain ciphers and the tension dissipates. [Read the review](https://deadline.com/2025/02/last-breath-movie-review-1236300632/) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/last-breath-2025.md