By snoadmin
Tears, romance and a hunky lead actor are the ingredients to any Nicholas Sparks film. However, in “The Last Song,” which opened on Wednesday, audiences leave the theatre with dry eyes because the story lacks powerful emotions.
Unlike Sparks’ other noted works, such as “The Notebook” and “A Walk to Remember,” the characters are hard to connect with and difficult to believe.
“The Last Song” follows a young girl, Ronnie (Miley Cyrus), who tries to discover herself as she is shipped off to her dad’s southern beach house for the summer. After leaving the family some years ago, Ronnie’s father (Greg Kinnear) is loathed by his daughter and must learn to reconnect with her through one of the only passions they ever shared: music.
Cyrus portrays a bad girl who steals and has few ambitions. However, it is hard to accept her character as authentic, especially in light of Cyrus’ Hannah Montana fame.
Fans of the Disney hit will be disappointed that this film isn’t sprinkled with blonde wigs and secret stardom, and instead packed with heartbreak and a Cyrus who seems to hate the world.
Surely, 9-year-old fans of the pop star will attend the movie, but it is far from appropriate. With violence, tragedy and a sizzling romance between Cyrus and co-star Liam Hemsworth, the film breaks Cyrus away from her Disney stardom and into an entirely different realm of entertainment.
The cast lacks sincerity, especially in the case of Ronnie’s romantic interest, Will (Hemsworth), whose only talent seems to be his rock-hard abs and charming smile. With an absence of emotion throughout the film and smiling with little dialogue for his first 20 minutes on-screen, Hemsworth is someone worth looking at, but definitely not a Johnny Depp or George Clooney in the making.
Kinnear does a fair job of portraying Ronnie’s dad, but with the strong distance between father and daughter, it is hard to connect with his character. Granted, the distance is necessary, but it ultimately foils the movie’s emotional purpose since the father is revealed to carry high importance in the plot.
Arguably the only believable character in the film was Ronnie’s younger brother, Jonah (Bobby Coleman). Through his innocence and witty charm, Coleman captures the emotions of audiences with his acting skills despite his young age. In one scene, he lets out a realistic cry and gives an emotional speech, which grasps and pulls the heartstrings of viewers, making them sympathetic to his situation.
Overall, the movie flaunts Sparks’ romantic and dramatic claim-to-fame, but disappoints viewers who go in with high expectations and hopes that it will have as much of an emotional impact as his other films. Bring some tissues if it’s easy for you to shed tears, but don’t waste money buying a big box; a travel-sized one will do just fine.
