The Good: Moments of decent acting
The Bad: Not funny, Not charming, Characters almost universally stink, First hour is terrible
The Basics: If you want to save time an not read this review, all you need to know about The Last Kiss is it's bad. Real bad. Of unacceptably poor quality. Blech!
Sometimes when I am reviewing a movie, I get caught up in the minutiae. I find myself thinking about how BAD a movie truly was and today while contemplating The Last Kiss, I decided my life is worth more than sitting and truly worrying about whether this was a 1 or 2 point movie. The first hour of The Last Kiss is absolutely terrible. The movie picks up near the end and I was debating for some time how much that ought to count for before I decided my life is worth more than that. Go figure.
Michael, a young man in his late twenties, is living his life with a girlfriend of three years, a great job and a generally nice place in the world when he decides he is unsatisfied about this state of affairs. Learning his girlfriend, Jenna, is pregnant, he appears ready to stand up but when he meets Kim, he allows his attention and devotion to wander. While Michael is having his crisis of lack of personality, Jenna's parents split, and Michael's circle of male friends begin to fall apart with their relationships.
There comes a point when one is doing something, watching or listening to something and they realize they are no longer in any way connected to the next generation. I officially hit that mark while watching the witless antics of Michael in The Last Kiss. There's a disconnect in me that fails to understand movies featuring young people with Hollywood-good looks and great relationships and stations in life who are simply miserable. The disconnect is tripped because for people of that younger age, which I apparently no longer am, the solution is always to change romantic partners. Sure, it's not cinematic for a guy who feels a lack in his life to take up a hobby or go back to school, but something other than simply screwing the first new woman who shows him affection would be nice. And, it seems, it's always a younger woman.
The thing is, none of the characters, save Jenna's father Stephen, say anything remotely interesting during the course of the entire movie. Michael feels anxiety. Okay. He's feeling anxious because there are no surprises left in his life. Wow. Boo hoo. I don't buy it. I don't buy that seeing one's future looking like one imagined it is such a bad thing. And if it is, it's his own fault; Michael laments that life looks exactly as he thought it would growing up. He never takes responsibility for the concept that HE DIRECTED HIS LIFE IN THE DIRECTION IT WENT!
The supplementary characters are equally witless and problematic. Izzy is an obsessed loser who cannot stay away from the woman he loved, who has dumped him. Kenny is sexually promiscuous and manages to find a woman who satisfies him completely until she wants him to meet her parents (I was seriously rooting for Kenny to have the awakening that getting everything he wanted was enough to want to stick with someone, but alas . . .). Sadly, it is Chris, who is waking up to the difficult realization that having a child has ruined his relationship with his wife, who I found myself rooting for. Even Anna, Jenna's mother, does not come across as sympathetic or realistic or even interesting as Chris.
As for Michael, he's bafflingly stupid for an architect. For a well-educated, fairly responsible guy he pretty much shoots rationality in the foot the moment he hits the first emotional obstacle. There is nothing especially distinctive or interesting about Kim, the college student who begins hitting on him. Sure, she looks good in a miniskirt, but she's so much more an object than a personality in this piece.
I could evaluate all of the performances, but for a movie of this quality, I am opting to not waste my time, nor yours. Zach Braff, who plays Michael, is convincing as a directionless, somewhat moronic adult. He plays witless and distressed well, even if his character's motivations are never fully explored. Casey Affleck gives an astonishingly deep performance as his character, Chris, wrestles with the emotional decision to abandon his wife. Affleck's story becomes more interesting than any of the others by the sheer magnitude of his performance.
The best acting, though, comes from the over 50 crowd in The Last Kiss. Harold Ramis's cameo steals that scene and Blythe Danner is easily the most interesting woman on screen in the course of the movie (and that includes the naked women having sex in a hammock). But the acting gravitas - when it is present in this lemon - comes exclusively from Tom Wilkinson, who plays Stephen. He is given the heaviest lines, especially near the end and he is up for the heavy lifting.
In the end, though, even that is not enough for me to willingly recommend The Last Kiss or rate it above 1.5. The movie fails to ask too many integral questions. Chris's anxiety over leaving his wife is a story in itself that has unrealized potential because we never see the pair happy. None of the characters seem to believe they can truly change their fate, save the witless Izzy and his only solution is to run away to South America.
Just once, I'd like to see an intelligent movie involving the next generation that gives me hope that humanity will not only survive, but grow. This movie is not it.
For other works Harold Ramis was involved in, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Year One
The Ice Harvest
Orange County
Bedazzled
As Good As It Gets
1.5/10
For other film reviews, be sure to visit my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!
© 2012, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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