Amanda C. Gregg - Special to The Garden Island | Posted: Saturday, April 24, 2010
At times poignantly sweet, as all tearjerkers are, Disney’s “The Last Song” attempts to pull at your heartstrings, at times successfully.
Though perhaps formulaic for a Nicolas Sparkes (“A Walk to Rem
ember,” “The Notebook”) screenplay — unexpected young love takes a complicated turn — there are a few surprises that balance the plot line poetically.
A musical prodigy of sorts, Ronnie Miller (teen sensation Miley Cyrus) and her younger b
rother Jonah (Bobby Coleman) set off to spend the summer with their estranged father Steve (Greg Kinnear) in the small, Georgia town of Tybee Island. While lovely in scenery, the rural town appears to also boast some Coney Island-esque qualities, from ferris wheel to seedy underbelly. It is here that Miller gets in with a rough crowd from the wrong side of the tracks before learning a few contrived life lessons.
Intent on not forgiving her father for her parent’s divorce, Miller is initially presented as another misunderstood teen in touch with her angst-ridden self before boyfriend-to-be Will Blakelee (Liam Hemsworth) courts her with persistence, Tolstoy quotes and the overwhelming sense that he “gets” her — Blakelee not only sees through her dark façade but proves to her she’s worth the work. And as the summer progresses, Blakelee proves he is a better man than Miller originally thought with each misstep he makes.
Miller’s musical talent and tutelage in music come from her father, a talent she forsakes until she can forgive him — and that forgiveness comes with the beginning of her love for Blakelee. With the onset of that love, Miller is able to rekindle her affair with the piano, and finally plays again.
Until this point the plot could seem rote, however, part of what ingratiates this movie to its audience isn’t what relies on Miller’s relationship with her new beau, but rather the relationship that she builds with her father.
To be sure, the relationship between Miller and Steve sets the stage for some of the more poignant scenes in the film.
One such scene takes place when Miller, her brother, boyfriend and father help hatching turtles make their treacherous and almost baptismal trek to the ocean in a moment epitomizing both nature’s cruelty and hope. The scene works as a metaphor about timing, strength and the fragility of life in regard to Miller and her father and younger brother — a theme that proves to be crucial to the film’s bittersweet ending.
It is with the father-daughter relationship that the movie departs from the played trials of young love and taps into the acting talents of both Kinnear and Cyrus. It is also the onset of an added dimension given to the younger brother who has been closest to his father and suffered quietly the loss of a daily relationship with him.
Kinnear provides the emotional underpinning that distinguishes this movie’s sweet moments from those that are simply saccharine.
All in all, though the movie is peppered with some heavily recycled ‘80s motifs (complete with a men’s beach volleyball scene hearkening back to the days of “Top Gun”), it is more unapologetically cute than cheesy — and a feel-good movie overall.
