The Last Song

If you already don't like Miley Cyrus, this movie won't convince you otherwise. In this Nicholas Sparks book-based film, Ronnie (Cyrus) and her little brother, Jonah (Bobby Coleman), are forced to visit their estranged father (Greg Kinnear) for the first time in 3 years at his beach house in Georgia. Ronnie is a piano prodigy and has been accepted to Julliard Academy but doesn't want anything to do with music ever since her father left them. She is miserable in the new town and bitter towards everyone around her. A popular guy, Will (Liam Hemsworth) falls for her, but she isn't too sure about him.

This film has not proven anything about Miley Cyrus that we don't already know. In fact, I personally think she did a better job in the Hannah Montana: The Movie. She was not the right person to play this role, and I think she was just chosen because of her notoriety and popularity in hopes that it would attract interest of a bunch of kids that will beg their parents to fork over the money to see this. Honestly, I think that the girl who played Ronnie's friend, Blaze (Charlie Chaikin), would have been a better choice for the role of Ronnie. The story was good, but not one of Sparks' best. It was full of too many characters that were never followed up on.

As for the good parts of this film, Greg Kinnear did an excellent job as Ronnie's father. Also, Bobby Coleman, as Jonah, was very cute in his role as Ronnie's little brother--and his relationship with his dad was very well demonstrated, and he had the best lines in the whole film (which, in fact, almost contributed entirely to preventing this film from being a complete flop). Also, Kinnear's verbal perception of music to his daughter and relating it to life was another plus.

I didn't become emotionally attached to Ronnie throughout this film because she just wasn't believable enough. I did hold back a tear at one point--mainly because of Kinnear and Coleman's characters, though.

The flirting taking place between Ronnie and Will were painful to watch at times because of how unreal they seemed. The chemistry didn't seem to be there all that much. Hemsworth did an okay job, but something just seemed a bit off about this whole film. I liked Dear John a whole lot better.

Overall Grade: C-


-Ethan Brehm