The Last Song (2010) Reviews

• Miley's most honest display of human emotion since deleting her Twitter account.

  Organic_62010-03-30

  Most writers would sell out by repeatedly writing screenplays that are vastly different from one another. Take Christopher Nolan for example; going from a psychological thriller where the storyline is paced backwards to an Oscar-winning blockbuster in which a world renowned superhero faces off his arch nemesis. Talk about a lack of consistency. A true writer gracefully keeps revisiting the same story over and over and OVER again and a great example for that kind of writer is Nicholas Sparks. If recycling is healthy for our environment, it has to be with movies too, right? Never before has this man forgotten to add a romantic scene at the beach of an Eastern Seaboard sunset where two lovers mutely stare at one another. And who else can gorgeously stir up a tear-inducing ending as much as he? Forget 500 Days of Summer trying to explore the complexities of falling in love with a Hall and Oates dance sequence and an Expectations vs. Reality analysis. Instead he always remembers to kill off a protagonist at the end. M. Night Shyamalan calls HIMSELF the master of unpredictable twists? Puh-lease! Mr. Sparks's death sequences are so surprising, that you could almost say they're completely unrelated to the genre that the previous two hours were aiming to be. And when a movie like Precious thinks its portrayal of a teenage girl in emotional turmoil is accurate, it's alarmingly mistaken. There, the leading lady is impregnated by her own dad, sadistically beaten down by her mother, all while dealing with obesity and illiteracy on a daily basis. Ha! Like THAT happens in real life. It's really the Last Song's Ronnie who deserves our sympathy. I mean, she has to spend the entire summer in an intimidatingly adorable Georgia beach house, embrace the pressure of getting accepted into one of the country's most respected art schools and endure the creepy smile of her overly kind father. Now that's plausible drama – I only wish I had the guts to sullenly disregard MY dad whenever he greets me with genuine concern. This vision of teen angst fantastically brought to life by none other than Miley Cyrus. Now there are those jealous haters out there, determined to bring her acting career down. But they don't understand the effort it takes from a performer to purse your lips and cross your arms for 90% of a film. Like me and my fellow Miley fans said – she's just playing herself. It's really those hacks like Johnny Depp and Meryl Streep who are destroying everything classic cinema stood for. Who do they think they are to disappear into the heart and soul of characters they don't relate to or resemble in reality? When I'm watching a character on screen, I want to see the actor playing them. That's what made the most recent, Valentine's Day, so brilliant was that I could watch Jessica Alba being Jessica Alba the whole time yet grow blissfully unaware to her character's traits, abilities...heck, I couldn't even remember her name. And mad props go out to Greg Kinnear in the role of a lifetime as the "antagonistic" father. A previous family drama of his called Little Miss Sunshine featured too much family and like…drama. It acted like each member had their own ambition and obstacle to deal with at the same time. What a load! This movie knows better, rather by making every other character's problems bow down to Ronnie's. In the Last Song, he delivers this performance, deserving the praise that Mo'Nique received playing Mary Jones. Never mind the fact Ronnie frequently shoplifts and snubs Julliard just to make a point. It's really him who's to blame for everything. How dare you fall out of love and pursue a career that makes you happy, only to have the audacity to want to mend the wounds of your broken hearted family? I rooted throughout for Ronnie as she continuously tried to reconstruct the layers of guilt and avoidance upon his shoulders. That leads me to my one grievance of this movie; a rebellious teenage girl visiting her estranged dad and blames one of her separated parents for breaking the family apart. Really Nick? That's all just too unfamiliar of a premise for me. At best, the closest Ronnie ever came to resembling a character from one of your previous features was Diane Keaton's daughter from Nights in Rodanthe (pauses) Ohhh!

  More

• Waste of time and money

  blueeyedbeauty7762010-03-31

  I'll admit I was excited at first to see this movie. I had just finished the book a couple days ago and was psyched to see such an incredible book brought to the theater. The book was amazing: funny, romantic, sad, cheerful, pretty much everything you could want in a book. Well, everything that made the book great was taken out in this appallingly horrible movie. It felt torturous to watch what with Miley Cyrus absolutely slaughtering the character of Ronnie. After finishing the book, I realized I couldn't see her as the character, but I figured she couldn't be too horrible. Oh how wrong I was. I didn't believe Miley Cyrus for a second during the real pivotal scenes in the movie. Her tears/crying scenes were laughable. Her attitude problem phase was obnoxious. The only relationship I believed was the one between her and the guy and that's because they're dating off screen. Oh how difficult it must be to act like you're in love with you're real life boyfriend. I wouldn't even call her performance mediocre. And then comes the fact that this movie didn't even somewhat resemble the book. They took out the best scenes. They changed nearly EVERYTHING. They cut the preacher and the important back-story of her father. They didn't introduce the slightly similar sub plot with Scott very well at ALL. It was hinted at throughout the book, but in the movie it was sudden and not very well done at all. Actually, the majority of the scenes were done opposite of how they were done in the book, making them really bad. Scott was more important in the book. Marcus was WAY more important in the book and he was one of those characters that was really kind of creepy. He was supposed to be a sociopath in the book, but in the movie he was just an annoying jerk. They completely changed Ronnie's reasoning,the reason Will fell for Ronnie, and many more things. In the book they really showed how Ronnie was different than other girls. In this movie,Miley Cyrus made Ronnie seem like every other girl but with an attitudeproblem. Miley played her as such a clingy, needy girl instead of the independent, self-assured, and intelligent girl she was. Then again, they changed more than they kept. If you want to know the GOOD story of The Last Song, do yourself a favor and buy the book. This movie wasn't worth the time and money.

  More

• One thumb down, One as confused as Miley Cyrus

  lilholik2010-04-03

  Alright, first I shall note that I have not read the book. I hadn't even seen a trailer for this film before I had gone. I went with my mother and sister who had both read the book and more than enjoyed it. I really had no idea what this story was even about. I walked in with a completely open mind. The acting in this movie was wonderful. On almost every account also. Greg Kinnear was amazing in the movie and the boy who played the son I was even impressed with. Miley Cyrus seemed to be the only exception. I hated her acting from the moment the movie began. As the movie went forth, I started to change my mind at times. She had no problem changing it back though. She was so off and on through out the entire film. She looked confused at times and when she actually had to show emotion like anger it was as if she didn't know what to do. But enough of that. The story at times seemed rushed and misunderstood. Everything was predictable. The portions of the movie where I actually felt as though I was supposed to cry seemed to happen so fast that I felt like I didn't have time to understand how the characters felt. There were major holes in the plot that I still had questions about and it drove me nuts at times. There were a couple of times where I actually felt like I was enjoying it but they came and went quickly also. The whole movie, and please remember that I absolutely knew nothing about this story before hand, I felt like I had nothing to look forward to. In the end I would say that I wouldn't suggest paying to see this in theaters. I definitely wouldn't buy it on DVD and I probably wouldn't even recommend renting it later. If by some chance you get an opportunity to see it for free and you're curious then go for it. I'd also like to mention that, from what I understand from my mother and my sister, this movie completely differs from the book so don't expect what you've read and definitely don't get to excited for this.

  More

• A really poor storyline and poor acting

  tsmithjr2011-01-31

  Miley Cyrus fans might hate me for saying this, but the makers of "The Last Song" should have hired a real actress for the lead role. Miley obviously doesn't have the talent or know how to act. I had nothing against her, but in this, the first role I've seen her act in, it seemed like she was just playing herself and not playing any part that was written for her. That said, "The Last Song" is a bust. It's a set of tired old recycled and clichéd experiences and really isn't worth the 107 minutes it takes to watch it. For the most part the storyline is so tired and old. And after watching it I was also disappointed that Greg Kinnear had signed up for it. That I can remember, I've always liked his acting and the roles he chose. But in this case, the writing was so, so poor that even if the makers of "The Last Song" signed up the best actors in Hollywood it couldn't save this film. They'd have to find some writers who were at a minimum mediocre-ish in order to improve this story. All I can say is save yourself and watch something else.

  More

• Seriously people?!

  tylerkaiser2010-05-30

  Grow up. The only reason why this movie has an average of 3.1 is because of Miley Cyrus. People wont give her a chance and they feel they can only bring her down is by sitting behind a computer screen. But guess what people - I'm sure she don't care! There is people who love this movie, like myself. People are going to watch it and people are going to buy it. So you giving it a 1 star rating is no harm. This movie needs at least a 6 or 7 star rating. For the people who actually want this real review, this is it. Miley Cyrus isn't that bad, weird facial expressions at time but no harm. It's a really good tear jerker and a good story.

  More