MOVIE REVIEWS | INTERVIEWS | YOUTUBE NEWS EDITORIALS | EVENTS | AUDIO | ESSAYS | ARCHIVES | CONTACT |
 
PHOTOS | COMING SOON| EXAMINER.COM FILM ARTICLES ||
HOME

                                                           
Wednesday, March 31, 2010

MOVIE REVIEW
The Last Song
Daddy Dearest, Kleenex Nearest


Miley Cyrus as Ronnie and Greg Kinnear as Steve, Ronnie's dad, in "The Last Song", directed by Julie Anne Robinson. 
Touchstone Pictures/Disney

By Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com        Follow popcornreel on Twitter FOLLOW  THE POPCORN REEL
Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Author Nicholas Sparks co-writes the script from his book The Last Song, resulting in an average movie, tarnished by relentless manipulation and symbolism often substituting for the earnest efforts of its actors.  "The Last Song", which opened today across the U.S. and Canada, is a better, more active film than the previous screen-adapted Sparks' novel ("Dear John", February), but no less aggravating.  Julie Anne Robinson directs.

Ronnie (Miley Cyrus) is spending a summer with her estranged father (Greg Kinnear) about whom many of the local Georgia townsfolk have said nasty things.  She despises him and doesn't want to stay in his isolated house by the water.  (At this point Mr. Sparks may already be sending the audience a message: unstable/tense household near water = proximity to tears.) 

Ronnie is a rebel, but her brother Jonah (Bobby Coleman) has the energy and enthusiasm to light up a thousand midnights.  For Jonah, summer with his dad is like being in a candy store without having to pay for anything.  The film's first major scene begins in virtually identical ways to the initial major scene in "Dear John", with a topless Abercrombie & Fitch-looking young man (Liam Hemsworth) interacting with a damsel-in-emotional-distress on a beach.

The film's sanguine visions  get progressively suffocated by the melancholy circling its edges.  Still, Miley Cyrus doesn't do badly here, moving away from her famed alter ego Hannah Montana.  Nevertheless, there's overcompensation in her performance early on, purposefully designed for the predictable mood of the film's final scenes.  A welcome distraction from the leaden seriousness is Mr. Coleman, who keeps the audience from prematurely collapsing into tears with his charisma and confidence, holding his own against his more established onscreen counterparts.

You are led to the inevitable reckoning by Mr. Sparks and Jeff Van Wie.  Romance is interwoven with the more dour undercurrents of life.  The two themes don't easily subsist or co-exist; one story is a distraction from the other.  A belated subplot is thrown in solely to accentuate the weepy donuts that "The Last Song" is waiting to unleash on its audience.  Melodrama enters the stage and on cue, Ms. Robinson's film, like a puppy dog that cries, "weep for me, please", obliges.


With: Kelly Preston, Hallock Beals, Nick Lashaway, Carly Chaikin, Kate Vernon, Melissa Ordway, Nick Searcy, Adam Barnett, Carrie Malabre, Lance E. Nichols.

"The Last Song" is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America for thematic material, some violence, sensuality and mild language.  The film's running time is one hour and 43 minutes.

COPYRIGHT 2010.  POPCORNREEL.COM.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.                   Follow popcornreel on TwitterFOLLOW  THE POPCORN REEL





Read more movie reviews and stories from Omar here.

Read Omar's "Far-Flung Correspondent" reports for America's pre-eminent Film Critic Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times - here



SUBSCRIBE TO THE POPCORN REEL MOVIE REVIEWS RSS FEED
"movie reviews" via popcornreel in Google Reader

MOVIE REVIEWS | INTERVIEWS | YOUTUBE NEWS EDITORIALS | EVENTS | AUDIO | ESSAYS | ARCHIVES | CONTACT |
 
PHOTOS | COMING SOON| EXAMINER.COM FILM ARTICLES ||
HOME