Hanna Barker
Staff Reporter
Nicholas Sparks meets Miley Cyrus in the tearjerking teenage romance, The Last Song. Sophomore Megan Robinson and I were happy to receive passes to a free advance showing of this film during our recent trip to New York City for a college media conference over spring break.
During the screening, there were mixed audience reactions. I noticed many people leaking water from their eyes, but just as many shamelessly giggling and commentating. These contradictions are justified, though. After watching the movie, I felt conflicted about my opinion of what I just saw. It made me cry, but it wasn’t technically good.
It was difficult to see Miley Cyrus as anything but Hannah Montanna. I couldn’t take her seriously as Ronnie Miller for quite a while into the movie. Her voice kind of bothered me. For example, when her character was supposed to be emotionally disturbed and frustrated, she just came off as bratty. Not all of the acting was horrible, though. Greg Kinnear as her dying father was really very believable; he carried the cancer plot to the emotional levels that reduced me to tears.
The script was kind of cheesy, to be honest. Some of the moments that came off as bad acting could probably be attributed to bad scripting. Similarly, there was bad editing that resulted in rough transitions and strange changes in audio levels.
The movie wasn’t horrible, don’t get me wrong. It was totally worth the free movie ticket and a couple hours of my life. Rather than spending money to see The Last Song, though, wait for it to come out on Netflix.
