'Last Kiss' gets swamped by a sea of cliches
The Last Kiss is a meditation on marriage for the Gen-X set, and for the Gen-Y set, too (as in, Why? Why? Why?). Dotted with wistful tuneage by Coldplay, Snow Patrol and Aimee Mann, it's a movie - based on an Italian art house hit of a few years back - that grapples with the thorny issues of commitment, fidelity and family, and tossing it all for a wild night with a college hottie. Zach Braff stars as Michael, a young architect who lives with, and is about to have a baby with, his girlfriend, Jenna (Jacinda Barrett). They're waiting on the wedding thing, in part because they don't see the necessity of formalizing their bond with a piece of paper and a pricey to-do, and also because she doesn't want to come off as "a slut" who simply trapped Michael into marriage by getting pregnant. At least, that's the jokey explanation they offer Jenna's parents when she and Michael break the news, over popping champagne, that Mom and Dad are about to have a grandchild.
The Last Kiss is a meditation on marriage for the Gen-X set, and for the Gen-Y set, too (as in, Why? Why? Why?). Dotted with wistful tuneage by Coldplay, Snow Patrol and Aimee Mann, it's a movie - based on an Italian art house hit of a few years back - that grapples with the thorny issues of commitment, fidelity and family, and tossing it all for a wild night with a college hottie.
Zach Braff stars as Michael, a young architect who lives with, and is about to have a baby with, his girlfriend, Jenna (Jacinda Barrett). They're waiting on the wedding thing, in part because they don't see the necessity of formalizing their bond with a piece of paper and a pricey to-do, and also because she doesn't want to come off as "a slut" who simply trapped Michael into marriage by getting pregnant. At least, that's the jokey explanation they offer Jenna's parents when she and Michael break the news, over popping champagne, that Mom and Dad are about to have a grandchild.
Tom Wilkinson and Blythe Danner are Jenna's long-married-in-a-comfy-house parentals, but, as it turns out, that marriage isn't a bedrock of love and trust, either.
And then, at a wedding for one of their friends, Michael meets Kim (Rachel Bilson, of TV's The OC), a frisky coed who moves in on Michael like a famished partygoer on a tray of hors d'oeuvres.
Actually, Kim's intentions aren't so much predatory as they are a simple, honest pursuit of someone she finds attractive. But Michael, who's at the wedding with the woman he lives with - the woman with whom he's having a child - lets Kim think he's in an unhappy, dead-end relationship. Feeling trapped by the predictable course his life has taken - college, job, relationship, impending parenthood, etc. - he decides to follow up on Kim's none-too-subtle overtures.
Small lies are told, and then - when a tragedy hits - the small lies turn big. Things get ugly. There's a big how-could-you-cheat-on-me confrontation scene. It even involves a kitchen knife.
Fundamentally, the trouble with The Last Kiss comes down to Paul Haggis' screenplay (he wrote and directed Crash), which takes the basic plot points of the Italian film and couches them in hackneyed settings and situations. There's not a resonant line or a three-dimensional character to be found here. All Haggis can do to establish Michael and Jenna's pre-adulterous twosomeness is offer up glib one-liners and a series of cutesy-poo bedroom scenes.
Michael and his pals (Casey Affleck, Michael Weston, Eric Christian Olsen) are all men still acting like boys, while the women in their orbit either represent a nightmare vision of marriage and family (a post-partum-depressed, stressed-out shrew) or a lad mag dream-babe who wants nothing more than hot, heavy sex.
It could be argued that The Last Kiss has a certain emotional honesty about it - or, at least, one of its principal characters, at a pivotal moment, summons up some honesty. But that's not really enough. Braff is likable, and then unlikable, but in soft, wishy-washy ways. And the parallel story line of Jenna's parents' tainted relationship is more depressing than dramatic.
They say cliches are cliches because they're true, and certainly the universe of marriage and relationships, commitment and forgiveness, is a real place - a place that most of us, at one point or another, have visited.
But it would be nice to have some insight, and some artistry, along with the same old same old. The Last Kiss dispenses none of that.
Contact movie critic Steven Rea at 215-854-5629 or srea@phillynews.com. Read his recent work at http://go.philly.com/stevenrea.
The Last Kiss ** (out of four stars)
Produced by Tom Rosenberg, Gary Lucchesi, Andre Lamal and Marcus Viscidi, directed by Tony Goldwyn, written by Paul Haggis based on the film L'ultimo bacio, photography by Tom Stern, music by Michael Penn and various artists, distributed by Paramount Pictures.
Running time: 1 hour, 54 mins.
Michael. . . Zach Braff
Jenna. . . Jacinda Barrett
Chris. . . Casey Affleck
Kim. . . Rachel Bilson
Anna. . . Blythe Danner
Parent's guide: R (sex, profanity, violence, adult themes)
Playing at: area theaters