Review of The Last Kiss (2006) by Jeff B — 16 Jul 2010

To say there is nothing remarkable about The Last Kiss is to say there is nothing remarkable about modern love. Before the strains of David Bowie are cued, however, let it be said that every line of dialogue, individual performance, and plot point is perfectly rendered and wholly believable--thanks in no small part to Oscar-winning scribe Paul Haggis. The end result, although somewhat agreeable, results not in a bang but in a whimper. Moviegoers have already seen better variations on the theme of wayward love's labor lost, most memorably in The Graduate and, more recently and to a lesser degree, Beautiful Girls.

In this R-rated serio-comedy about having a quarter-life crisis, a 30-something man (Braff) must decide between marrying his perfect and pregnant WASP-y wife (Barrett) or running off with the alluring young college student who has tickled his fancy (Bilson).

Filling the shoes of the anti-hero cad, Braff injects the character with such likeability that his philandering elicits sympathetic squirms from both sexes. As good as the performance is, however, his crime comes off so unforgivably damning that the audience is left feeling like a heel by proxy. To hammer home the point that no relationship is completely solid, the disharmonious love lives of Braff's friends (Casey Affleck, etc.) and intended in-laws (Tom Wilkinson, Blythe Danner) are also spotlighted. What results, however, is an often-uneven ensemble dramedy. Director Tony Goldwyn needed to put his foot down as to the film's focus-ensemble or stand-alone. Instead, the story meanders between fully-baked and half-baked stories that never really complement each other.

Bottom line: Likeable...but unremarkable.