Cyrus adequate, not boffo in dramatic debut
Ronnie (Miley Cyrus) and Will (Liam Hemsworth) ponder their future. (Touchstone Pictures)
The Last Song
Running time: 101 minutes
MPAA rating: PG (mild profanity, thematic material, sensuality)
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Movie-goers have a right to be a little apprehensive when pop music stars make their dramatic feature film debuts.
Driving to the theater to preview "The Last Song" starring little-bit-country pop sensation Miley Cyrus, the thought of Britney Spears jumping up and down on a bed in the opening scenes of "Crossroads" in 2002 didn't exactly set the stage for magical drama.
Rest easy, Miley Cyrus fans. The star of Disney's "Hannah Montana" TV series is confident and adequate (although not sensational) in a first love, second chances romance-with-tragedy drama that unfortunately, at least from this aisle seat, comes from the Nicholas Sparks novel mill.
Sparks, of course, has sold millions of weepy novels. Several have made their way to movie screens with big-name stars attached even. Films like "Message in a Bottle" with Kevin Costner, Robin Wright Penn and Paul Newman ( 1999) and "The Notebook" (2004) with Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, James Garner and Gena Rowlands, for instance.
"The Last Song" is something else, however. Sparks says in the movie's press notes that he wrote this script with Cyrus in mind. In fact, he was apparently solicited to pen something adequate for the teen singing sensation's dramatic film debut.
Although not awful, "The Last Song" sings with familiar Sparks emotional hot points: true, but troubled love, melodrama, predictability and sudden tragedy.
In other words, just be prepared when the lights go down on a Sparks-to-big screen adaptation because somebody's going down. This is the first time the author writes the movie screenplay, so don't expect any added shock relief from a script doctor.
Cyrus gives it a good-enough go as Veronica "Ronnie" Miller. A gifted pianist just out of high school in New York, she's planning to reject a scholarship to Julliard. Why? Her parents divorced.
She may or may not have shoplifted back in New York.
"I didn't do it," she pouts to her little brother Jonah (Bobby Coleman) as Mom (Kelly Preston) pulls the car up to Dad's (Greg Kinnear) Georgia beach house for what looks to be a deeply troubled summer vacation.
Cyrus almost has the Elvis Presley quivering lip pout going until a hunky, shirtless beach volleyball player with rippling abs and a rep as a womanizer (girlanizer?) gets her attention.
Where there's a Will (budding young Aussie actor Liam Hemsworth) there's a ray of hope, a resurgence in her musical interest and -- in true Nicholas Sparks style -- sudden tragedy looming.
The camera loves Miley Cyrus in a feature film concert or even as a slightly rebellious teen shaking her TV persona (not exactly a stretch) in last year's "Hannah Montana: The Movie."
The camera moves in for the thrill or kill when the role is of the ingénue falling in love with crashing waves beach sand between her toes, however. The jury, I'm thinking, will wait to count box-office returns before committing to Miley Cyrus, the dramatic leading lady.
She's not bad, really. It's just unfortunate that Cyrus is mired down by cinematic cheese in her dramatic debut. First-time feature film director Julie Anne Robinson does little to keep Sparks from being Sparks, Mr. Melodrama.
Driving to the theater to preview "The Last Song" starring little-bit-country pop sensation Miley Cyrus, the thought of Britney Spears jumping up and down on a bed in the opening scenes of "Crossroads" in 2002 didn't exactly set the stage for magical drama.
Rest easy, Miley Cyrus fans. The star of Disney's "Hannah Montana" TV series is confident and adequate (although not sensational) in a first love, second chances romance-with-tragedy drama that unfortunately, at least from this aisle seat, comes from the Nicholas Sparks novel mill.
Sparks, of course, has sold millions of weepy novels. Several have made their way to movie screens with big-name stars attached even. Films like "Message in a Bottle" with Kevin Costner, Robin Wright Penn and Paul Newman ( 1999) and "The Notebook" (2004) with Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, James Garner and Gena Rowlands, for instance.
"The Last Song" is something else, however. Sparks says in the movie's press notes that he wrote this script with Cyrus in mind. In fact, he was apparently solicited to pen something adequate for the teen singing sensation's dramatic film debut.
Although not awful, "The Last Song" sings with familiar Sparks emotional hot points: true, but troubled love, melodrama, predictability and sudden tragedy.
In other words, just be prepared when the lights go down on a Sparks-to-big screen adaptation because somebody's going down. This is the first time the author writes the movie screenplay, so don't expect any added shock relief from a script doctor.
Cyrus gives it a good-enough go as Veronica "Ronnie" Miller. A gifted pianist just out of high school in New York, she's planning to reject a scholarship to Julliard. Why? Her parents divorced.
She may or may not have shoplifted back in New York.
"I didn't do it," she pouts to her little brother Jonah (Bobby Coleman) as Mom (Kelly Preston) pulls the car up to Dad's (Greg Kinnear) Georgia beach house for what looks to be a deeply troubled summer vacation.
Cyrus almost has the Elvis Presley quivering lip pout going until a hunky, shirtless beach volleyball player with rippling abs and a rep as a womanizer (girlanizer?) gets her attention.
Where there's a Will (budding young Aussie actor Liam Hemsworth) there's a ray of hope, a resurgence in her musical interest and -- in true Nicholas Sparks style -- sudden tragedy looming.
The camera loves Miley Cyrus in a feature film concert or even as a slightly rebellious teen shaking her TV persona (not exactly a stretch) in last year's "Hannah Montana: The Movie."
The camera moves in for the thrill or kill when the role is of the ingénue falling in love with crashing waves beach sand between her toes, however. The jury, I'm thinking, will wait to count box-office returns before committing to Miley Cyrus, the dramatic leading lady.
She's not bad, really. It's just unfortunate that Cyrus is mired down by cinematic cheese in her dramatic debut. First-time feature film director Julie Anne Robinson does little to keep Sparks from being Sparks, Mr. Melodrama.
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