Directed by Gillies MacKinnon
Written by Joe Ainsworth
Starring Timothy Spall, Phyllis Logan, Natalie Mitson
Runtime: 1 hour and 26 minutes
In theaters and digital February 18

by Matt McCafferty, Staff Writer

For a movie that tries so hard to pull at your heartstrings with the “heroic” actions of its main character, The Last Bus never feels earnest with its intentions. It puts a lot of effort into highlighting the faults of various people so that it can better lift up its protagonist. If people aren’t acting mean, how can we see this guy act as a hero? Unfortunately, I think that question works as a sort of formula behind nearly every interaction that our protagonist has along his trip.

Tom (Timothy Spall) is a widower who decides to use his free bus pass to travel the length of Britain back to his original home town of Land’s End where he fell in love with his recently deceased wife, Mary (Phyliss Logan). The trip triggers flashbacks where we learn more about Tom and Mary, including the reason why they decided to leave Land’s End years ago. 

On his journey, Tom comes across a number of people who he meets and tries to help in some way. A broken down car on the side of the road. A woman being verbally berated. Many of these encounters are recorded by bystanders, eventually making him into a social media sensation. Apparently, this idea was inspired by real life events. While that may be true, it’s a component of the film that I wish they left out. It’s a forced side story that doesn’t serve any purpose. If it was meant to be a little nod to the real life guy, it was a nod that took up too much time.

Most of Tom’s encounters deal with people who are made out to be terrible, or in general, simply not as morally sound as him. Even the “good” people in these scenes come off as inferior people because they don’t step up to do the right thing like Tom. I get it, “the world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows.” Rocky was right about that. However, it’s also fair to say that there are plenty of good people in the world. To the film’s credit, it was trying to show us that in the form of Tom. Instead of delivering that message, it ended up putting all its effort into making Tom look like he’s a better person than everyone else.       

This is also a love story in a sense as we witness the flashbacks that show us the love and loss that Tom and his wife experienced over the years. Again, it feels like the movie missed the mark on what it was trying to achieve with this storyline. This should have been the central part of the plot that all audiences could connect with in some way or another. Grieving after the loss of a loved one. Visiting old places that spark memories of better times. The film is trying very hard to get you to feel all of these feelings with Tom. That’s the problem. It’s all too forced. The flashbacks feel wooden; constructed solely to make you feel bad for Tom. Unfortunately, there’s just not enough substance in those scenes to make you feel anything real. 

If there’s one reason to see this film, it’s Timothy Spall. If you are a fan of his, you might enjoy this to some degree. Spall is terrific, doing the best he can to make some of these cringe-worthy scenes a little easier to watch. His performance wasn’t enough to save the movie for me, but I was on board with his dedication to putting his all into the role. Other than that, you also get some beautiful scenery here and there; but again, just not enough there to make up for all the film’s other issues.