'The Last Thing He Wanted' Trailer: Anne Hathaway Is A Journalist Caught Up In The Iran-Contra Scandal

The 2020 Sundance Film Festival kicks off today, and one of our most anticipated movies playing up in the mountains of Park City, Utah is the latest directorial effort from Mudbound and Pariah director Dee Rees.

The Last Thing He Wanted, based on Joan Dideon's novel of the same name, finds Anne Hathaway as journalist Elena McMahon, who ends up caught in the middle of the Iran-Contra scandal. The affair saw weapons being sold to the Khomeini government of the Islamic Republic of Iran in order to fund Contras, various U.S.-backed and funded right-wing rebel groups in Nicaragua, and Elena's father (Willem Dafoe) just so happens to have dropped some unfinished arms deals in her lap.

Watch The Last Thing He Wanted trailer that was just released by Netflix to get a taste of this thrilling drama.

Her'es a more detailed description of the film's plot from the official Sundance synopsis:

Journalist and single mother Elena McMahon (Anne Hathaway) has rigorously investigated Contra activity in Central America for years. Frustrated when her coverage is censored, relief comes in an unexpected package: her acerbic father (Willem Dafoe) falls ill and leaves her a series of unfinished and unsavory arms deals in that very region. Now a pawn in a risky and unfamiliar game, surrounded by live ammunition in more ways than one, and alongside a U.S. state official (Ben Affleck) with whom she has a checkered past, Elena needs to parse her own story to survive. With her disenchanting life awaiting her back home, she is forced to consider what she really wants.

The Sundance programmer presenting the movie said, "Seasoned performances by Hathaway, Affleck, and Dafoe match the sobriety of the subject matter and convey the questionable intentions, inscrutable connections, and bitter fates of these complex characters." That description along with the trailer gives the movie flairs of a variety of different political thrillers and war dramas such as Charlie Wilson's War to Kill the Messenger, bridging arms dealing and journalism into one exhilarating story.

Dee Rees has been a filmmaker to watch for years now, and this looks like the kind of movie that will have her being sought after by studios to tackle a big Hollywood blockbuster. This has action, drama, suspense, and it won't be long before Dee Rees joins the ranks of Kathryn Bigelow and Patty Jenkins.

The Last Thing He Wanted arrives on Netflix on February 21, 2020.