More than a weather-beaten face makes Malcom look like a fisherman. He prefers the hard work, day after livelong day. He relishes a lonely definition, doing what his mentor taught him when he was a teen. He breathes what needs doing, and that includes so many tasks besides catching fish.
Even if young people could afford to live in what used to be a vibrant British fishing village, you can’t really make a living as a fisherman. That’s without saying that few twenty-somethings would work as long and hard as 70-year-old Malcolm still works.
Not sociable in the way of so many town folk, Malcom is nonetheless a sturdy local citizen, practiced in a willingness to give what little one has. Not a doting family man, he was nonetheless tried and true doing what he saw as his calling. He still comes home from the sea with a twinkle in his eye. “What would he do else?” his wife says.
An Austrian couple comes to live in the town. This broadens the character-rich qualities of the documentary called “Last Fisherman.” Their presence (after being around a few years) fastens a modest link between the last fisherman and the future.
Though there’s air aplenty about a tradition passing by, this life affirming film doesn’t indulge in sadness. It delivers well the substance you might expect from such a documentary, without flapping any issues in the wind. It delivers a respectful, engaging tip of that hat to Malcolm.