Review: "The Last Song"

I walked out of "The Last Song" wanting to be a better person. Say what you will about me, but it's true.

It is, as critics have said, a rather cliche film. Like many teen romance films, you can see where things are going before the opening credits are even over, but that doesn't stop it from being effective. It might not stay with you forever, but there's a good chance that you'll be thinking about it for a couple of days after seeing it.

Miley Cyrus plays a troubled teen who's sent to live with her father f0r summer with her little brother for the first time since her parents' divorce. She's fresh from a shoplifting arrest, is in a bad mood with pretty much everybody, and treats her eventual boyfriend like crap when he accidently spills a milkshake on her while he's playing a volleyball game.

That would be a hottie played by Liam Hemsworth, a clearly decent guy who Miley's character wants nothing to do with. The dude's so obviously nice that it's a wonder that Cyrus doesn't warm to him sooner than she does. But, as is the way in these stories, it does of course happen.

Although it's being marketed mainly as a romantic yarn, "The Last Song" is first and foremost a story about father and daugther. Played by Greg Kinnear, he's struggling to get back in touch with his little girl, someone who means more to him than anything in the world. He wants her to get back to playing the piano, which is something that she always did when her parents were still together, but stopped doing after the divorce happened.

Kinnear's performance is one of the strongest aspects of the film. Obviously, the concept of a father just trying to reach out to his children is something we've seen over and over again, but Kinnear makes the character immediately appealing. He's sympathetic when he needs to be, funny when he needs to be, and once the film goes into very dark territory, handles those scenes with grace.

Cyrus is far from terrible, and is actually able to pull the role off for the most part. Admitably, her character was such a selfish bitch at first that I had a hard time even believing in her, but that feeling wore off as the story went on. I had similar feelings towards her brother, who might've been a little too adorable in his earlier scenes, but likewise grew on me as the movie went on. As the oh-so-decent boyfriend, Hemsworth does a pretty good job, although we've seen this sort of love interest in so many movies from the past that it's hard for him to bring anything especially memorable to the role.

Being based on a novel from Nicolas Sparks, the story inevitably takes a tragic turn around the third act. When that happens, those who cry at movies (and you know who you are) are bound to need more than a few tissues. Not since "Bridge to Terribithia" have I heard this much distinctive sobbing from an audience. So, if you're going to the film expecting another "Hannah Montana" story from Miley, don't think you're going to get that.

I did not expect to like this movie as much as I did. There is very little, if anything, original about it. And yet, it moved me in a big way. Hearing life lessons, even when they're ones we've heard a million times before, can be very important to us as human beings. While "The Last Song" brings nothing new to that table, it does what it sets out to do well, and deserves to be complimented for that.