The Last Song :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews 10-04-29 7:14 PM

movie reviews

Reviews Great Movies Answer Man People Commentary Festivals Oscars Glossary One-Minute Reviews Letters Roger Ebert's Journal Scanners Store

News Sports Business Entertainment Classifieds Columnists

search THE LAST SONG (PG) Ebert: Users: You: Rate this movie right now in theaters Site Web Search latest reviews powered by YAHOO! GO The Girl on the Train advanced » tips » Hubble 3D The Losers register The Secret in Their Eyes A Shine of Rainbows You are not logged in. That Evening Sun Exit Through the Gift Shop Log in » Harry Brown Subscribe to weekly A Nightmare on Elm Street newsletter » The Square more current releases » one-minute movie reviews answer man and Liam Hemsworth. 04/14/2010 » still playing

The Last Song Brooklyn's Finest times & tickets 45365 BY ROGER EBERT / March 30, 2010 After.Life Fandango Now that Miley Cyrus is Ajami Search movie Alice in Wonderland showtimes and buy 17, it's about time she cast & credits The Art of the Steal tickets. played a 16-year-old. That she does fetchingly in The Back-up Plan "The Last Song," and wins Ronnie Miley Cyrus Blood Done Sign My Name about us the heart of a beach Steve Greg Kinnear The Bounty Hunter volleyball champion a foot Will Liam Hemsworth Chloe taller than she is. Well, Jonah Bobby Coleman About the site » City Island actually 12.5 inches. She Kim Kelly Preston Clash of the Titans Site FAQs » also learns to love her Cop Out dad, played by Greg Walt Disney presents a film Contact us » Kinnear, whose aura directed by Julie Anne Robinson. The Crazies suggests a man easier to Screenplay by and Creation Email the Movie love than, say, Steve Jeff Van Wie, based on the novel Date Night Answer Man » Buscemi. She does this on an idyllic island by Sparks. Running time: 108 paradise off Savannah, minutes. MPAA rating: PG for Death at a Funeral on sale now Georgia, where her dad is thematic material, some violence, Diary of a Wimpy Kid a classical composer sensuality and mild language. District 13: Ultimatum whose pastime is restoring The Eclipse Printer-friendly » stained-glass windows. Exit Through the Gift Shop E-mail this to a friend » Fish Tank I was trying to remember the last time I felt the way Formosa Betrayed about a girl that Miley From Paris With Love Cyrus's fans feel about The Ghost Writer her. That would have been in 1959, when I saw Hayley Mills in The Girl on the Train Buy now » "Tiger Bay." Oh, she was something. A brave tomboy. She was 12, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo but I could wait. It's a bit much to ask for the same innocence from The Good Guy Miley, who has already had her first World Tour, but the fact is, she The Greatest does a good job of making her character Ronnie engaging and lovable. That's despite her early Alienated Teen scenes. You know Green Zone it's an Alienated Teen when it's a lovely day on an island paradise, Greenberg but she has her hands pulled up inside the sleeves of her sweater Happy Tears and huddles against the chill of the cold, cruel world. Harry Brown Home I like Miley Cyrus. I like her in spite of the fact that she's been Buy now » Hot Tub Time Machine packaged within an inch of her life. I look forward to the day when How to Train Your Dragon http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100330/REVIEWS/100339997 Page 1 of 3 The Last Song :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews 10-04-29 7:14 PM

How to Train Your Dragon she squirms loose from her handlers and records an album of classic songs, performed with the same sincerity as her godmother, Hubble 3D Dolly Parton. I think it'll be a long, long time until she plays a movie The Joneses character like the free-standing, engaging heroines of Ashley Judd, Kick-Ass but I can wait. The Last Song The Last Station "The Last Song" is about how Ronnie (Miley) and her little brother Leaves of Grass Jonah (Bobby Coleman) are taken by their mother (Kelly Preston) The Losers Buy now » to spend the summer with their dad Steve (Kinnear). She blames her dad for the divorce, is sullen and withdrawn. Ten minutes after The Most Dangerous Man in America she hits the beach (dressed in Gothic black), her milk shake is Mother spilled by a flying volleyball player named Will (Liam Hemsworth). My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done Talk about your Meet Cutes. Gradually she overcomes her hostility Nick Nolte: No Exit to Men and realizes Will is a nice and honorable kid, even though A Nightmare on Elm Street he lives in a vast Southern mansion with insufferable rich parents. North Face Our Family Wedding Ronnie and Will make an attractive couple, possibly because Miley is standing on a box below camera range. I suspect Hemsworth Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief Buy now » may have been cast for his appeal to fangirls, rather like Robert The Perfect Game Pattinson in "Twilight." He's a little too tall, blonde, blue-eyed and A Prophet hunky to be super plausible. He can definitely become a star, but it Red Riding Trilogy may be in the Peter O'Toole tradition; I can more easily imagine him Remember Me in a remake of "Lawrence of Arabia" than as a settled spouse in a Repo Men domestic drama. The Runaways Miley Cyrus, on the other hand, is attractive in the way of a girl you Saint John of Las Vegas might actually meet. Her acting is unaffected, she can play serious, The Secret in Their Eyes Buy now» and she works easily with a pro like Kinnear, whose light comedy The Secret of Kells skills are considerable and undervalued. She even seems sincere She's Out of My League in the face of a plot so blatantly contrived it seems like an after- A Shine of Rainbows school special. Would you believe that she and Will bond over sea Shutter Island turtle eggs? The Square Yes, she scares off a raccoon trying to raid a nest of eggs buried in Still Bill the sand, and mounts an all-night vigil over them. Then she calls Terribly Happy the aquarium, and who do you think is the handsome volunteer who That Evening Sun responds to the call? Standing watch together the second night, Valentine's Day Buy now» Ronnie and Will start talking, and it's only a matter of time until they Vincere regard together the itty bitty turtles hurrying toward the sea. Waking Sleeping Beauty Who Do You Love? The other big crisis of her summer is that she' a trained classical pianist, but has just turned down a scholarship to Juilliard because The Wolfman her dad, you see, is such a snake. In a world containing divorce, The Yellow Handkerchief what's the use of Mozart? The film's title relates to this situation, I more current releases » believe, in some obscure way. Miley does, however, sing in the movie. She's mad at her dad, but not her fans. on dvd Buy now» "The Last Song" is based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks, who new on dvd also wrote the screenplay. Sparks recently went on record as saying he is a greater novelist than Cormac McCarthy. This is true in the same sense that I am a better novelist than William Ride with the Devil (4/27) Shakespeare. Sparks also said his novels are like Greek Tragedies. It's Complicated (4/27) This may actually be true. I can't check it out because, tragically, no The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (4/27) really bad Greek tragedies have survived. His story here amounts District 13: Ultimatum (4/27) Avatar (4/22) to soft porn for teenage girls, which the acting and the abilities of 35 Shots of Rum (4/20) director Julie Anne Robinson have promoted over its pay scale. Summer Hours (4/20) Mammoth (4/20) The movie is intended, of course, for Miley Cyrus admirers, and The Lovely Bones (4/20) truth compels me to report that on that basis alone, it would get four The Horse Boy (4/20) stars. But we cannot all be Miley Cyrus fans, and these days you rarely hear Hayley Mills mentioned. Yet I award the film two and a more new on dvd » half stars. coming on dvd To be sure, I resent the sacrilege Nicholas Sparks commits by mentioning himself in the same sentence as Cormac McCarthy. I Leap Year (5/4) would not even allow him to say "Hello, bookstore? This is Nicholas Matinee (5/4) Sparks. Could you send over the new Cormac McCarthy novel?" The Muse (5/4) He should show respect by ordering anonymously. But it seems Nine (5/4) Tooth Fairy (5/4) unfair to penalize Miley Cyrus fans, Miley herself, and the next Edge of Darkness (5/11) Peter O'Toole for the transgressions of a lesser artist. more coming on dvd » great movies on dvd

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100330/REVIEWS/100339997 Page 2 of 3

The Last Song :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews 10-04-29 7:14 PM

Obama Urges Homeowners to Refinance great movies on dvd Rates Hit 3.62% APR! www.SeeRefinanceRates.com Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (1/2) Cache (1/13) The Hairdresser's Husband (1/27) Learn the Basics of Forex Howards End (2/23) Free Guide. Free Practice Account. Make Way for Tomorrow (2/23) www.GFTforex.com Pink Floyd: The Wall (2/24) The Big Lebowski (3/10) Gone With the Wind (4/13) Penny Stock Alerts - Official Site My Life to Live / Vivre sa Vie (4/20) Don't miss out on winning penny stocks www.PennyStocksAlerts.com more great movies on dvd »

Online 3D Building Game Free building brick game Build - share - www.roblox.com

Ads by Yahoo!

© copyright 2010, rogerebert.com

Privacy Policy Terms of Use Submission Guidelines

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100330/REVIEWS/100339997 Page 3 of 3