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The Family Reel Movie Reviews
Now Showing on The Family Reel with Christopher Echols
The Last Song
Nicholas Sparks, probably best known for his romantic blockbuster “The Notebook”, has delivered another novel-to-film screenplay with Miley Cyrus as the lead attempting to break away from the shadow of Hannah Montana. While the film makes every attempt to pull the heart strings and flood the tear ducts of audiences, it ultimately relies too much on clichéd characters and scenarios that have become a staple of Sparks’ work.
As a former piano prodigy and a bitter child of divorced parents, Ronnie(Cyrus) is overwhelmed with spite for the breakup in her family and is spending the summer with her father, much against her own wishes. During her time at her dad’s(Greg Kinnear) Georgia home she comes across local volleyball hotshot Will(Liam Hemsworth) and their summer romance is as sappy as the movies·oh yeah, this is a movie. Moving on·
At the heart of the picture, you have the joys and pains of young love and the restoration of a relationship between father and daughter centered around their mutual love of music. It is simple, sweet story and a pretty harmless one at that. There are just a few issues with the writing and acting that make some of the film so corny it hurts.
Most of the blame can be laid straight at the feet of Ms. Cyrus. Now, having an 11 year old in my house, I can say our TV is consistently on the Disney Channel and “Hannah Montana” is one of the programs they run 24/7. It’s not that Miley doesn’t have any talent, it’s just that in a film alongside someone of the caliber of Greg Kinnear, her limited abilities really stand out. She has a 1 note character who sulks almost the entire movie and the only other emotion is extreme happiness that she emotes. Any other feeling in between, like a realistic one for instance, is sadly missed. Aside from the character of Ronnie, there are quite a few cheesy lines delivered and it seems that more often than not the film tries too hard to bring on the tears rather than let them develop naturally.
Now most pre-teen girls are going to love this film. Their adoration for Hannah Montana alone shows they don’t need quality acting to enjoy a program so this will indeed win them over. The PG rating is sufficient as hardly any of the content is going to be bothersome to parents·unless of course sitting next to your blushing 11 year old as teenagers make out on screen is bothersome·ahem·you get the idea.
Not bad, not great·.but your kids are going to drag you nonetheless.
Grade: C
Posted on 02 Apr 2010 by Woodlands Family Magazine
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