ScreenWize

As an intrepid young film reviewer, I once had to swallow my pride, don a pair of 3D glasses, and sit through the Hannah Montana concert movie Best of Both Worlds. Having now seen the latest Miley Cyrus venture, The Last Song, I am at risk of heavily plagiarising myself in this review, for I will say once again that there is a reason the Miley Cyrus juggernaught is what it is. She is a talented young thing, perfectly charming, and there could be worse role models for the teen armies who idolise her.

The Last Song marks Cyrus’s first attempt to stray away from the cultivated Disney sitcom world that has made her a household name (that would be households with kids – if you are lucky, your house may well live in blissful ignorance). She doesn’t stray too far from home however. This is still a Disney film, carefully cultivated to allow her to show her many talents. I wouldn’t say acting is the best of them – her range is somewhat limited – but she does a serviceable job here as Ronnie, the rebellious daughter of Steve Miller (Greg Kinnear). The problem with Cyrus isn’t her range, it is that her character is just so unlikeable.

Ronnie and brother Jonah (Bobby Coleman) are sent by mum (Kelly Preston) to spend the summer with their estranged father in an idyllic beach town in Georgia. Ronnie is all annoying pouty teenage angst about the torture of it all, until she meets local hunk Will (Liam Hemsworth), who is full of his own angst-ridden family dramas, and Ronnie comes to recall the music that once made her and her father close.

This is piano-key-tinkling melodrama that pulls out just about every cliché in the book. It’s from the pen of Nicholas Sparks, author of the manipulating weepies A Walk to Remember and The Notebook, but nowhere near the class of those two productions. If this was a television movie of the week, it would be just fine, but most audiences will see through its uninspired dialogue and plotting.

Liam Hemsworth is pretty good, or at least, pretty. He and brothers Chris (Star Trek) and Luke are in hot demand, part of Australian soap opera’s secret plan to spread its spawn through Britain and America and take over the world. Greg Kinnear turns in his usual fine work and you actor Bobby Coleman is believable in the overlooked younger brother role.
One for the young ladies of a romantic frame of mind.

Rating:

CK

Filed Under: Reviews by Simon