Last Song

The coming of age story is somewhat of an out of place genre in the film world. First of all it typically has to struggle to find the proper audience demographic. The viewers in the age group depicted in the story are too busy going through the coming of age process to want to sit and watch someone else in a similar set of circumstances. Adults in the audience are far removed from that pivotal time of life and are frequently not into revisiting an emotionally disrupted part of their lives. Still, the coming of age drama persists as one of the more popular types of films because the topics are universally relatable and flicks like this are commonly used to help promote the career of some young and rising star. One of the latest flicks caught in this entanglement is ‘The Last Song’. It is a thinly drawn story of the standard issues of teen angst and youthful rebellion. The starlet being pushed in this opus is none other than Hannah Montana. I mean Miley Cyrus. In many ways these movies reflect the state of the stars featured in them. In this particular instance Ms Cyrus is currently undergoing changes that would be a basis for its own coming of age movie. She has been in the public eye since she was about 11 and literally has gone through the excruciating pangs of puberty on television. Now she is going through the rough period of a child star’s career where they have to translate to an adult profession. While young Ms Cyrus has been in several films already this movie is notable for being the first time she has worked on a project of this type without her alter ego of Hannah Montana to bolster her fan appeal. This film is also the first not specifically geared toward that horde of tween Hannah fans.

The story comes from the novel of the same name by noted author Nicholas Sparks. He has quite a few of his books transformed into movies most notably the award winning ‘The Notebook’ as well as ‘Message in a Bottle’ and ‘Nights in Rodanthe’. It is fairly evident that his literary niche is romance and the fact is he is well accomplished in this field. He wrote the screenplay for this movie along with first timer script writer Jeff Van Wie. Although I can usually get into a well constructed romantic comedy a dramatic teen romance has never been my cup of tea, so to speak. The required elements of this genre tend to over doing the melodrama often to the point of unintentional humor. Regrettably this formula is squarely achieved in this film. The conflict, angst and rebellion assault the audience almost without let-up. There are some attempts to depict the rose colored view of first love and make some stab at humor but it just doesn’t seem to girl properly. The director of the movie, Julie Anne Robinson, is well established in the television variation of the melodrama helming episodes of such popular series as ‘Grey's Anatomy’, ‘Private Practice’, Weeds’ and ‘Samantha Who?’ Most of her directorial work has been in presenting stories revolving around string women. One difficulty here is Robinson’s usual work deals with young women already somewhat established in their lives but going through some drastic change. In this film she directs Cyrus as a typical movie misunderstood teen. Instead of coping with a major turn in direction just when the female protagonist thinks she has life worked out Cyrus’ character of Ronnie Miller has no clue to how life really should work.

Ronnie is seventeen and bitter over the acrimonious divorce of her parents. As the story begins it has been three years since the split and her father’s resulting move to Georgia. Ronnie used to be a piano wunderkind under the watchful training of her Dad, Steven (Greg Kinnear) forming a close bond with him. After the divorce one manifestation of her rebellion is to reject the instrument and the offer to study at the prestigious Juilliard School of music. Like most broken home movie kids Ronnie takes everything as if it was personally directed at her in order to make her angry. You can tell this by the standard movie affectations of constant scowl the ‘Daria Morgendorffer’ combat style boots. Peer acceptance is made more difficult as Ronnie walks along the beach dresses entirely in black passing the bikini clad beach bunnies. This does set up the initial awkward meeting with Will (Liam Hemsworth) who knocks a milk shake all over her, a never miss opening gambit for teen love in flicks like this. Back at home Ronnie has been getting to trouble both with failing grades and running afoul of the law. The main purpose of the trip is to reconnect with her father who unbeknownst to Ronnie has terminal cancer. Naturally this doesn’t come out until it looks like she is on the way to repairing the relationship with her father. Helping Ronnie to focus on the two male influences in her life; restoring a stain glass window with her father and saving a nest of sea turtles with Will.

This film suffers from predictability. There is not a single plot twist that comes as any surprise at all. The main reason most will see this flick is to find out if Ms Cyrus can act. While she does have potential it is far too easily in her career to say either way. It’s one thing to play light family comedy as she did for four years on ‘Hannah Montana’ and another thing altogether to have to carry a serious part with one persona. Some of her recent antics to demonstrate her growing up sexualizing her image may work against her in this stage of her career. The film does have some points in its favor for fans of this specific genre. The fundamental construction of the film is suitable for a coming of age flick with the usual caveats; it tries too hard to illicit an emotional response.

Posted 08/06/2010