Movie Review

THE LAST KISS
<-starring all those people
Don't go see this movie. i don't care how much you love Garden State, The O.C. or whatever season of The Real World Jacinda Barrett made it out of. Just don't. Unless, of course, you LIKE spending $10 and 2 hours watching people be awful to each other, then i highly recommend it.
Okay, so it's well acted and well shot and i'm not naive enough to think that you need to love all the characters in every movie everywhere, but come on! Braff's character, Michael, tells his pregnant girlfriend of 3 years, Jenna (played by Barret), who is perfect by his own and his buddies' admissions, that he's madly in love with her and really excited about the unplanned pregnancy, then turns around and immediately and intentionally gets involved with another girl, Bilson's Kim. WHO, by the way, comes on to Michael at a wedding, finds out he has a girlfriend, and still pursues him. This all happens in the first 20 minutes, so there was no chance you were ever going to like Kim. Conniving slut. And later when Michael tells her 'Sorry, shouldn't have involved you in this', she tries to play like she's the victim?! Oh noooo honey, you did not just do that. Somehow, we're supposed to sympathize with Michael because he's turning 30 and 'there are no surprises left' and blah blah disenchanted peter pan blah blah blah. Nope. The guy's a jerk. i'd use other adjectives, but i think my grandma might read this. The likeability the writers create for him is solely based on his love for Jenna, and he annihilates that the first chance he gets.
There are other story lines involving his turning-30-not-ready-to-grow-up-buddies and even Jenna's disenchanted parents (played outstandingly by Wilkinson and the always balls-out Danner), but instead of deflecting your hatred of Michael onto them, they instead serve as further proof that, basically, people suck and treat others horribly. Good times. At least the acting was good. Jacinda Barret is an aussie and her really angry scenes had a bit of her accent in them, which was kinda fun. Bilson does her OC 'sprightly brunette' schtick, only with added sexy (ps, even if you ignore my advice to NOT see this movie and decide you WILL, don't see it with your parents), and it works for this role, but i'm not sure how far it'll take her otherwise. Casey Affleck is really good too. i wish he did more mainstream stuff because i never manage to see the artsy flicks he's in. Josh was ready to leave halfway through the movie, and frankly i was too, but i wanted to stay for Bythe Danner and Tom Wilkinson and they didn't let me down.
i know that the movie isn't claiming to be a great romance and is instead standing on the platform of 'this is reality! people do this stuff! life stinks sometimes! angst is as angst does!' ....but isn't the point of going to the movies to ESCAPE reality? Isn't the point of love and commitment saying 'i'm not going to do this stuff to you, and i'll make your life stink a little less'? Thanks for destroying both in one fell swoop guys.
i don't recommend it, unless you're a guy having an early mid-life crisis and need to feel validated. Even then....maybe not. 2 out of 5 pairs of chinos.