The Last Song


2/4

Starring: Miley Cyrus, Liam Hemsworth, Greg Kinnear, Bobby Coleman

Rated PG for Thematic Material, Some Violence, Sensuality and Mild Language

Let me begin by saying I’m a sucker for this sort of thing.  I hate to admit it, but shamelessly manipulative tearjerkers frequently get to me.  Maybe it’s because, at heart, I’m a romantic.

Be that as it may, “The Last Song” doesn’t work for a number of reasons.  For one thing, the script is shallow, and although the two leads have chemistry (something that can’t be faked), they can’t act.  Only Greg Kinnear and Bobby Coleman escape unscathed.

Ronnie Miller (Cyrus) is a musical prodigy who has stopped playing and has become a rebellious and uncommunicative teenager.  She and her brother, Jonah (Coleman) have been shipped off to Georgia to visit their father, Steve (Kinnear) for the summer.  Ronnie doesn’t like the idea and makes no secret of it.  Shortly after she arrives, she attracts the attention of a stud named Will Blakelee (Hemsworth).  Ronnie rebuffs him, but eventually she warms up to him and they fall in love.  But then something happens that could shake the fragility of Ronnie’s healing.

To say that Miley Cyrus is a pop sensation is to understate matters.  She’s more famous than Britney Spears and the Spice Girls ever were.  Following them both, she has tried her hand at acting (although she does have her own show on the Disney Channel, so this isn’t a first for her).  Unfortunately, her acting is a little stiff.  Cyrus can deliver dialogue convincingly, but at communicating through body language, she’s horrible.  When she’s a pouty rebel in the beginning, it’s almost unintentionally funny.  She does get better once she breaks out of the gloom, however.  Likewise, her studly boyfriend is similarly acting challenged.  His brother Chris was wonderful as Thor, but apparently talent isn’t genetic.  He’s a little stiff as well, but we like him anyway.  The film’s saving graces are Greg Kinnear and Bobby Coleman.  They’re funny and sympathetic.  The subplot about them and the stained glass windows they make is almost more compelling because of it.  Kinnear is especially good; we feel for him more than anyone else in this story.

To be fair, it’s not completely the actor’s fault that they’re so stiff since they’re saddled with a script like this.  The movie doesn’t have the guts to let them be their characters.  All we get are little scenes and montages showing them falling in love.  That may work once or twice, but it’s not a substitute for character development and interaction.  This causes the plot to move along in an unconvincing manner.  The film could have been a lot better had the script given them the chance to get to know each other.

The film looks great (that sort of thing is a must for this kind of a movie), and the manipulation is shameless (again, a given), but ultimately, there are too many problems for me to recommend this film other than to die-hard Cyrus or Nicholas Sparks fans.

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