Last Night in Soho-- My take on the movie with Spoilers!

 

PLOT SUMMARY: While visiting London, Eloise is able to enter the 1960s where she meets Sadie, an aspiring singer. After witnessing a murder, Eloise tries to get to the bottom of the mystery. 

Nostalgia, it is an emotion which makes us yearn for a period which made us happy or one in which we think would make us happy.

The world we are currently in can be overwhelming sometimes and the stress can make us wish we were anywhere else but here. And then we watch a period drama or play a video game based on a past era that makes everything seem so simple. This modern world with its modern problems simply won't exist.

Of course, in our desire to escape our problems, we don't realize that the past has its own problems.

Or the time we now see through rose-tinted glasses was problematic even then.

Last night in Soho is one of those movies that is hauntingly beautiful. Is it a typical horror movie? Not really. Is it a great mystery? Again, not exactly.

The interesting part of Last Night in Soho is that it completely pulls you in and thrusts you into a world you didn't think was fascinating. The movie captures the era perfectly, has well etched out characters and fortunately doesn't lag.

Unfortunately where the movie falters is in identifying what it needs to be.

It tries to be a murder mystery, horror, fantasy and drama while unable to fully commit to these labels.

It's a captivating movie. That is it. It's enjoyable and the essence of the movie stays on. You may not recognize the fragrance but it lingers in your memory for a long time.

LAST NIGHT IN SOHO Movie Plot

When the movie begins, we meet Eloise, prancing around in a dress made of newspapers. She's captivated by bygone eras and has posters of Audrey Hepburn in her room. The fact that's she's able to create a dress out of newspapers shows that she is fashion designer. She lives with her grandmother, and dreams of making it big in the world of fashion. Occasionally, she'll see her mother in the mirror and her grandmother even asks about it.

Eloise,  or Ellie as she prefers to be called, lies about it. Clearly, she has some extraordinary senses that allows her to see ghosts.

Fortune favors Ellie and she gets to go to the London School of Fashion. She's excited and hopes to make her grandmother proud. The elderly woman assures her that Ellie has always made her and her mother proud but warns her that London isn't all she expects it to be.

That's what everyone says in the movie: London is not quite an easy place to live in. Don't expect much. It's a dangerous city. It's a reverse promotion of London of sorts.

Anyway, Ellie meets her roommate Jocasta who becomes her first lesson to learn in London: People here are mean.

Jocasta makes fun of Ellie for having no parents and appears to be in some sort of competition to get pity votes from their classmates. Ellie does follow her around though and meets John who is the only person that is kind to her in whole of London.

Ellie decides to immediately move out and look for bedding elsewhere. She finds a house with a room available for rent. The Old woman Ms Collins expects two months rent so that Ellie doesn't up and leave immediately. She also warns her that during the summer, they will have to plug up the drains because it was an old house and the pipes would become smelly. There's a reason why this bit of information was inserted.

Ellie doesn't care. She just can't deal with Jocasta and wants some peace of mind. Soon enough, Ellie finds herself in a new room and at night, as she drifts off, she finds herself transported into London as it was in the 1960s. She is fascinated by the sights and enters a Cafe to find herself looking into the mirror and seeing a reflection of another girl.

She learns her name is Sadie. Sadie us blond, confident, and dreams of becoming a singer. She approaches Jack who promises to help her become a star. She gives him a preview of her talents by dancing with him and Ellie finds herself dancing with him as well.

Sadie is happy when Jack offers to get her an audition. They make out and in a way, Ellie does too.

The next day, she decides to steal Sadie's dress idea for her assignment. The teacher is impressed while a jealous Jocasta and her friends note Ellie's love bite.

That night Ellie can't wait to be transported back into Sadie's world. This time she sees Sadie attending an audition at the Rialto and singing a song sensually. The owner at the Rialto is impressed and Sadie thinks she's found her chance to be a singer.

Ellie is genuinely happy for Sadie. She begins to relate to Sadie who like her came to this city to live her dreams and make it big. Like Sadie, Ellie finds the confidence to pursue her dreams. She's her idol now and so Ellie wakes up in the morning and the first thing she does is get a hair dye job. Ellie is blond now with a puffy hairstyle. She changes her wardrobe too but needs money to afford more nice things. She gets a job at the pub instantly and finds an old man following her.

Ellie gets closer to John and they become good friends.

At night, Ellie us excited to attend the Rialto and see Sadie perform as the star of the show.  She is shocked to discover Sadie is one of the backup dancers. She follows her into the dressing room and finds Sadie despondent and angry at the way things turned out for her.

Ellie starts to lose hope too. What's worse is when she finds out Jack pimping out Sadie who initially refuses but then in the next scene Ellie finds Sadie on the bed and inviting men over.

When Ellie wakes up she is greatly disturbed and even more so when she starts seeing apparitions of all the businessmen who had been Sadie's customers.

To distract herself, she goes with John to a Halloween party and sees Sadie dancing who then vanishes. The businessmen approach Ellie and and freaks out.

John takes her back home and Ellie decides to invite him up to her room. She starts making out with him only to have another vision of Sadie having an argument with Jack about not wanting to be a prostitute anymore. Jack then stabs Sadie to death. Ellie screams, terrified and Ms Collins come running into her room.

That's cue for John to pull up his pants and rush out or be accused of forcing himself on Ellie. Ms Collins warns Ellie about her rule of not inviting males and she apologies.

The next day Ellie thinks the old man who keeps following her may be Jack and goes to the police to file a report. They wonder if she has been drugged and Ellie remembers Jocasta handing her drinks. She's laughed out of the police station. She goes to the library to conduct a research herself and finds no news of a girl called Sadie being murdered but there are plenty of missing reports about men.

John meets her there and promises to believe her stories and help her. He goes to find something when Ellie is approached by the apparition of a businessman. She runs and decides enough is enough. She picks up a pair of scissors and is about to stab the ghost with it when John catches her hand. Turns out she was about to stab Jocasta.

Jocasta decides to complain. Ellie runs out, sees Sadie and follows her. She's accosted by the apparitions again and breaks free. She finds the old man and accuses him of murder. He refuses her claims and walks away only to be hit by a taxi. The pub owner comes out and calls him by another name. She also tells Ellie that while calling for help, to mention that the man was an ex policeman. Ellie recalls that in one of her visions she saw Sadie talking to a police man who was trying to help her but that Sadie denied being who he thought she was.

LAST NIGHT IN SOHO Ending Explained with Spoilers!

Ellie decides enough is enough and that she wants to leave London. John drives her to the house and she tells him to come get her if she doesn't come down in fifteen minutes.

Ellie meets with Ms Collins and expresses her desire to leave. Ms Collins hands her some envelopes, informing her of a post she received. Ellie goes through the mail, ignoring the name on the envelopes which sag Alexandria Collins. Alexandria was Sadie's real name.

Ms Collins informs Ellie that detectives came by asking questions and she didn't appreciate Ellie going to the police and talking about murdered girls.

Ellie asks her again if anyone died in her bedroom and Ms Collins reveals that a girl did die that night but not literally. That girl's dreams died that night but she was very much alive.

Ellie finally notices the name on the envelope and learns that Sadie is very much alive and it was Jack who had been murdered that night after he attacked Sadie.

Ellie is then informed that the tea she drank thirstily was poisoned. But she clearly didn't have enough of it. A chase scene ensues where Ms Collins tries to get Ellie who is also cornered by all the ghosts of the businessmen. Turns out Sadie had killed everyone who had been her customer and buried them under the floorboards. Hence the reason why she told Ellie about the stench from the drains during the summer. The ghosts try to get Ellie to kill Ms Collins but Ellie still sympathizes with Sadie.

John also comes after fifteen minutes have passed. He is stabbed. A lit cigarette causes the records to burn and then other things too. Sadie is ready to die after feeling defeated and  tells Ellie to leave.

Ellie and John leave as the house is consumed with fire.

Time passes enough for Ellie's blond dye to fade away revealing her mousy brown hair. She has set up a fashion show and is lauded for her 60s inspired dresses. Everyone cheers for her, even Jocasta, although she does so reluctantly.

Ellie is congratulated by John and her grandmother, but she is more interested in the mirror. She sees her mother being happy for her. But then she sees Sadie, waving at her and blowing a kiss.

Sadie is probably happy that Ellie got to see her dream come true.

Perhaps what Ellie saw wasn't Sadie but a representation of a dream. A lot of people come to the big city, all starry-eyed and hoping to achieve their dreams only to be laid astray and live in depression. Not everyone gets to win, do they?

So Sadie was just that, a ghost of a dream who is liberated when Ellie, another girl who had big dreams, got to achieve it.

Scare scale: 4/5