Movie Review: 'The Last Song' showcases a grouchy Miley Cyrus and an Australian hunk
Miley Cyrus undergoes emotional healing in tale from Nicholas Sparks
2 1/2 stars out of 4
"The Last Song" might as well wear a "kick-me" sign for critics, grouches and Internet trolls: It stars 17-year-old Miley Cyrus as a disaffected rebel and is based on a book by Nicholas Sparks ("The Notebook"), an astoundingly popular writer of tearjerking melodramas.
No matter: Its intended youngish, girlish audience should like it just fine, satisfied sniffles and all.
It's sentimental, predictable, pretty clunky and pretty sweet, and sometimes there's a place for that.
Cyrus plays Ronnie, a New York vegetarian who wears those clunky black boots, a permanent frown and a little stud in one nostril. Oh, and black nail polish.
The summer after high school's over, she and her perky little brother are consigned to hell: a long stay in the pleasantly ramshackle beach house of her divorced dad (Greg Kinnear).
It's on Tybee Island, just east of Savannah, and its sandy landscape of palmettos and coastal scrub will be familiar to those of us in these parts. Still, you can't help but notice that, even though it's summer, all the windows are left open and no one ever sweats, not one tiny bit.
Ah, if only.
Within minutes of getting dumped on Tybee, she meets the local beach boy, a handsome volleyball player who falls over her and then falls instantly for her, clunky black boots and all.
He's played capably enough by Australian hunk Liam Hemsworth, whose accent comes and goes, which won't matter to those blinded by his teeth and abs. They also probably know already that he and Cyrus are, we're told, now a real-life couple.
In "The Last Song," Cyrus takes a measured step away from her "Hannah Montana" image. I can't speak with total authority on the matter, but I believe she shows more midriff here than she ever did on TV, and finds herself in a couple of grown-up situations her Disney alter ego never faced. Plus she sings just once on camera, and that's to a radio.
"The Last Song" moves efficiently enough through its paces, as we wait to discover: Can the mellow charm - and sea turtles - of Tybee break through Ronnie's tough shell? Can she bond with her dad, to whom she condescends and ignores? Will she ever play piano again? Will she accept her scholarship to Juilliard? Will she patch up her differences with the volleyball guy?
OK, so you know the answers already. But "The Last Song" makes the smart move of getting only occasionally mired in sticky sentimentality.
Kinnear helps: He has his usual wry wit and understated charm. He's happy to play the straight man to the funny young Bobby Coleman, who plays his cute son. The sea turtles are cute, too.
Rated PG for some fighting, a little smooching and a mildly bad word.
matt.soergel@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4082
