My Own Discord - The Last Song - Movie Review

The Last Song = C+
Written by Nicholas Sparks & Jeff Van Wie, Directed by Julie Anne Robinson
Opens Mar. 31st 2010

Yah, I saw it. Yah, I'm reviewing it. Hey, considering I actually liked Hannah Montana: The Movie, I may actually secretly be the 12 year old girl demographics they're trying to hit here (which is basically what the screening consisted of. My friend and I may have shifted the average age demographics a few notches over). Of course, the real me would have groaned at this movie were it not for Greg Kinnear's involvement.

Instead, I think I sat through the entire mind-numbingly glossy movie with a grin on my face the whole time and practically clapped with glee everytime Liam Hemsworth took off his shirt. At least they were smart enough to have Liam Hemsworth shirtless within the first 5 min. of the movie. And then repeated that throughout the film. A lot. (Oh happy times)

Of course, I knew what I was heading into and you don't go into a movie based on a Nicholas Sparks book starring Miley Cyrus expecting art. You know there's going to be a lot of loverly shots of a glowing Miley and Liam as they hate-first/love-later each other. You know that having Oscar nominee and former Talk Soup host Greg Kinnear means that the role of father couldn't just be a throwaway, and thankfully Kinnear throws some dramatic heft into the lightweight film.

And this being a Nicholas Sparks movie, you know all the straight guys are going to roll their eyes throughout the film (after whimpering like a baby when they got dragged their by their girlfriends/wives in the first place) while all the gays and the girls are going to cry at some point, and cry with glee at the sight of Liam Hemsworth (and to be perfectly honest, Greg Kinnear, who is looking just as good now as he did in his film debut in Sabrina).

To give Miley Cyrus some credit, wasn't horrible, although I think I found her bad-girl act a bit laughable. Liam Hemsworth was surprisingly decent considering half his job was to stand there shirtless. And Bobby Coleman (as Miley's younger brother), despite some showbizkid-look-at-me-acting, was thoroughly enjoyable, especially in his scenes with Greg Kinnear.

SPOILER ALERT

But while The Last Song doesn't come close to the actual quality of The Notebook, I didn't hate it either. Probably because it had nothing really to hate since the first half is spent blandly (but lovingly) covering the goo-eyed love between Hannah Montana the spawn of Billy Ray and Liam Hemsworth, while the second act reveals the sad twist it had been hinting at (and expected since nothing really happens up to that point, so SOMETHING had to happen).

Seriously, you knew SOMEONE was going to die in this movie. Though I will say that I actually stupidly guessed wrong. I should have known. My mind was numbed from all the cliches in the first half that I actually enjoyed the emotional manipulation of the second half.

Vance at http://tapeworthy.blogspot.com