Movie Review: "The Last Song"

Seen on: March 25, 2010

The players: Director: Julie Anne Robinson, Writers: Nicholas Sparks, Jeff Van Wie, Cast: Miley Cyrus, Greg Kinnear, Liam Hemsworth, Bobby Coleman

Facts of interest: Based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks.

The plot: A young teenager must spend the summer at her dad's and falls in love with a beach boy who will bring her back to reality.

Our thoughts: I only wish “The Last Song” would be the last Nicholas Sparks adaptation to hit the big screen. Granted, I have never read any of his novels, but the quality of the recent films based on his popular work is rapidly decreasing. This latest one stars Miley Cyrus as the lead character, and to tell you the truth, I think she’s better off sticking to signing.

Cyrus plays Ronnie, a rebellious teenager forced to spend the summer at her father’s beach house. Her younger brother Jonah gets along just fine with daddy Steve (Greg Kinnear), but Ronnie simply can’t forgive him for suddenly leaving the family after his marriage started to fall apart. Ronnie has other personal issues as well, but she doesn’t really have anyone to talk to.

Things slowly start to change when Ronnie meets Will (Liam Hemsworth), a handsome young man who takes interest in her and keeps bugging her until she finally stops pouting and admits she’s kind of into him as well. Needless to say, the two quickly hook up, and what happens next is easy to figure out if you’re somewhat familiar with Sparks’ work.

Essentially, “The Last Song” almost qualifies as a bad remake of “Dear John.” The two films share a nearly identical storyline and characters, and both are as predictable and overly cheesy as any movie in this genre can get. The only difference is that “Dear John” featured a pair of decent lead actors who made it a watchable experience.

One of the main reasons “The Last Song” is so painful is its total lack of plausibility. I understand the drama overload is something you’re in for in every Sparks story, but the way these characters behave and talk to each other in this film is simply beyond ridiculous. To tell you the truth, listening to Cyrus and Hemsworth wrestling with utterly terrible dialogue almost made my ears bleed.

I understand Ronnie is a messed-up girl in need of someone who listens to her and makes her feel good, but her incredibly hasty romance with Will and both her mood swings and changes in attitude and perspective are so unrealistic and over the top, all I could do was laugh about it. Add strong predictability and the usual Nicholas Sparks tragic twists, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for disaster.

Cyrus doesn’t have anything reasonable and compelling to work with here, so I can’t entirely blame the failure that is this film on her. Still, her acting isn’t any better than in her “Hannah Monana” flick, and I really wish she would just keep singing. The only tolerable performance in this film is that of Greg Kinnear as the father, the only likeable character.

Freaky quote: "Truth only means something when it's hard to admit! Don't you get that?" - Miley Cyrus

The final word: I know I’m probably pissing off many Miley Cyrus fans with this, but I’m just being honest about how I felt when I saw this flick. “The Last Song” really sacrifices solid storytelling for the sake of showing Cyrus stumbling from one overdramatic moment into the next one. Sappy and without real guts, this is the kind of song I personally don’t want to listen to.

Article by Franck Tabouring