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The
Last Song
is the second
Nicholas Sparks
movie to hit home
video in the past
year after
Dear
John
did early in the
summer.
Dear
John
was terrible, it
didn’t have good
acting, the
direction and the
script were odd and
altogether it was a
mess.
The
Last Song
is much more
likeable than
Dear
John
for a number of
reason, the first
one being its source
material.
Ronnie Miller (Miley
Cyrus) and her
little brother are
sent to their
father’s (Greg
Kinnear) beach-front
property for the
summer to spend a
few months and have
some father bonding
time. It’s really
not that simple
though. The two kids
are part of a broken
family after their
parents go through a
messy divorce and
Kinnear’s character
Steve Miller goes
back to Georgia
after living in New
York. Ronnie still
harbors a lot of
anger and resentment
towards her father
for leaving the
family and going
home after he
divorced her mom.
She’s also generally
a struggling young
adult- she’s bitter
and mad all the
time, she doesn’t
know what she’s
going to do with her
life- she’s
basically lost. In
the land of Nicholas
Sparks, that means
she’s going to meet
a boy and he’s going
to fix everything.
The boy is Will
Blakelee (Liam
Hemsworth), the
perfect young man
with money, looks,
philanthropy and
passion. He and
Ronnie meet and hit
it off right away
and the relationship
grows while she
works out her
problems with her
father. That’s this
movie in a nutshell.
Its true- it’s a
romantic movie aimed
at girls ages 15-26,
but it’s not bad for
what it is. As noted
before, it’s twice
as good as
Dear
John,
and it has some good
qualities.
Miley Cyrus tries on
her dramatic chops
with this role, and
she’s not bad. She’s
been acting for a
few years now so she
knows how to get
through normal
dialogue and comedic
moments well. Her
dramatic moments in
the movie were hit
and miss. In the
beginning of the
movie she was good
and bad, in the
middle of the movie
she didn’t have very
much prowess in that
area, but at the end
of the movie she was
great. I don’t know
the order of how
they filmed scenes,
but she got better
as the movie went on
with those sad and
emotional moments,
and overall she did
a great job in this
movie.
Miley isn’t the only
good part of the
movie, direction by
Julie Ann Robinson
was awesome with
some solid
underwater shots,
and she got great
use of the beautiful
places where she
filmed. Casting was
great with Greg
Kinnear playing
Ronnie’s emotionally
distressed father
and even the music
direction was great
with good use of
some unorthodox and
unpredictable tracks
instead of just
having an all-Miley
soundtrack.
This
script worked really
well for what this
movie was. The story
flowed well and the
peak emotional
moments have the
power to connect
with the audience.
There are some
teenage girl moments
written in that are
there to create some
drama in some slow
parts of the story,
but they’re short
and forgettable.
Ronnie runs off and
away from romantic
interest Will
because… well
because she’s 19 and
someone said
something that
someone else said
and it made her mad…
or something like
that. Weird moments
like that are in the
movie two or three
times, but like I
said, they’re short
and forgettable.
The extras on the
Blu-Ray are fairly
standard. There’s an
extended/alternate
opening that extends
the burning church
scene slightly. In
that spirit there
are also some
deleted scenes, it
made sense to keep
out what they kept
out. There’s also
some cast/crew
interviews with
Bobby Coleman
showing us around,
and a
producer/director
commentary. Not bad,
but plain.
The
Last Song
was a decent and
heartfelt movie. It
had some emotional
moments and some
good qualities to
upend some minor
flaws. Comparing the
last Nicholas Sparks
book to be made into
a movie-
Dear
John,
next to this one-
this one is ten
times better. Its
better casted,
better written,
better filmed, just
everything is
better. It’s still
not an Oscar-worthy
movie by any means,
but it’s a good
heart-tugging movie
that young women can
pick up and enjoy
and really torture
their boyfriends
with.
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