Predictable and Derivative - But Good, Anyway
Written: Mar 19 '07 (Updated Mar 19 '07)
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Product Rating:
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| Bang For The Buck |
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Pros: good dialogue, funny characters, excellent performances
Cons: yawnable premise
The Bottom Line: Some films start with a great premise and work their way to mediocrity. This one starts with mediocrity and does better.
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| bilavideo's Full Review: The Last Kiss |
You know a movie has made its mark when you see it popping up in other movies, almost a decade later. The movie I'm referring to is Magnolia, that much-loved and much-hated three-hour epic by Paul Thomas Anderson, a film about tragic serendepity as we find it crossing over the character arcs of eight ill-fated Los Angelesans.
Based on a screenplay by Paul Haggis (Million Dollar Baby, Casino Royale), which was stolen from the Italian film, L'Ultimo Bacio, this is a directorial vehicle for actor Tony Goldwyn (Ghost, Tarzan, The 6th Day, The Last Samurai). What results is a cute film with a good finish to what is otherwise a somewhat pedestrian story with somewhat pedestrian direction - but with sometimes exceptional interludes.
Michael (Zach Braff) is a twenty-something on his way to thirtyhood. He and his friends are experiencing something between an early-midlife crisis and the male version of the biological timeclock. As the early joys of male bachelorhood give way to the quiet realization that time is slipping away, each of Michael's friends is having a different reaction. Chris (Casey Affleck) is having second-thoughts about jumping into fatherhood, especially with a woman who tears him down. Izzy (Michael Weston) is having an existential crisis because he thinks his own shot at love has gone south. Kenny (Eric Christian Olsen) loves the sex but avoids attachment that comes with it.
Michael doesn't know what he wants.
Ready or not, when Michael's girlfriend, Jenna (Jacinda Barrett) announces she's pregnant, Michael has to make a choice. Will he stand beside her? Will he run? The problem with Michael is that, like most Zach Braff characters, he doesn't say what's on his mind. For reasons never fully explained, he just wants to drift. And that's when he runs into Kim (Rachel Bilson), a college sophomore who practically throws herself at Michael. In a different situation, we might fault her as needy, young and willing - but how is she to know if Michael doesn't say anything?
Much of this film exists in the tightrope Michael walks in not deciding what he wants. One minute, he's at the clinic with Jenna; the next, he's off with Kim, trying to enjoy the music of another life, but trying as well not to get up and dance. Given the limited dimensions of the main plot, this movie's saving grace is its series of subplots involving related characters - including Jenna's parents: Anna (Blythe Danner) and Stephen (Tom Wilkinson) - whose own relationship is in crisis after decades of well-worn comfort. Harold Ramis also turns up as Professor Bowler, Anna's old flame. As he did in the movie, Baby Boom, Ramis proves able to fill a character, even one we aren't sure we like.
I began this review by referencing P.T. Anderson's Magnolia because this film, like that one, is a film about an idea - with all of its related characters fleshing out the details of a complex argument about life. Unlike Magnolia, which lacked a central character, this film centers the drama on Michael's fateful decision. Haggis's script is lighter, less Maudlin, than Magnolia - but it's less remarkable. Magnolia took tragedy and tears and worked them into high opera. Its characters' angst was profound, painful and funny. The Last Kiss is merely amusing, with some moments of poignancy but the result is shallower and more derivative.
Still, a wide gap exists between movies that are "fun" and movies that are "meaningful." The former group look like comic books while the latter look like assigned reading. The Last Kiss bridges that gap in a satisfying way. The premise, itself, is so accessible it underwhelms, but the subplots and performances are worthy. For that reason, I gave this film three stars. I'd have popped off another star had the premise been more original, but the details of this warmed-over premise will make you forget its predictability.
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Date Movie
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Plot
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Member: Bill Kilpatrick
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