Last Kiss follows, tangentially, the stories of four buddies approaching thirty, and attempts to address the issues raised when they are forced to confront the gulf between their youthful dreams for their futures and the reality that they will really have to live in. Braff's Michael is the main story, and when we meet him he is panicking because his life feels very much planned out his longtime girlfriend is pregnant, he's about to turn thirty and he wonders what life will be like now that there are no surprises left. As Jenna (Jacinda Barrett) tries to draw him closer, we see him balk in subtle ways, until temptation reveals itself to him in the form of a college girl named Kim (Rachel Bilson, looking remarkably like a younger Katie Holmes). Kim is everything Jenna is not, and Michael finds himself attracted to this younger woman. The other stories interweave with his; another friend is only into one night stands and thinks he's found the perfect partner until she springs her parents on him at a surprise dinner. A second friend just can't get over his ex-girlfriend, and the last one is in a marriage that's falling apart, partially over their baby. So Michael at least has a lot of options to consider when he's mulling over his own situation.
Last Kiss moves very slowly in spots, sometimes so slowly you find yourself reaching for the remote. While it purports to be an examination of relationships, the lesson that it teaches is that they are all hard work and compromise and little joy in fact, the only time anyone in the movie is having any fun at all is when they are fooling around on someone, an odd message in a relationship film. It can sometimes be difficult to understand why Michael wants to be with Jenna when every other relationship in the movie is portrayed as a confining trap.
It doesn't help that Braff and Bennett have no chemistry in fact, Jenna is so thoroughly unlikable that it's hard to see what Michael sees in her other than stability, which, I can tell you from experience, is not that attractive to most 30-year old men. Another problem is that Braff has no chemistry with Bilson, either, so they never click as a couple. You don't really understand why he's with one girl over another, or why he'd choose to cheat with Kim, other than the fact that she's young and pretty and practically throws herself at him. Kim is meant to represent the promise of fading youth to Michael, another path which is merely fun and parties and fooling around, but the two are such a mismatch Michael seems forty when he's around Kim, not thirty that it's almost painful to watch, and the shallowness of that relationship is laid bare in five minutes. You can tell quite clearly that whatever Michael wants Kim can't give it to him, and you can see he's self-aware enough to realize that, and yet, there he is, fooling around with her.
I wouldn't say the movie doesn't make sense, but the plot and characters bent to serve the message, which is, relationships are hard work, not fun, but compromising who you are is better than being alone. Since I fundamentally disagree with such a pessimistic view of love and relationships (and feel, frankly, that it is better to be alone than with the wrong person), I had a lot of trouble with this film, and the weakly sketched characters and situations didn't help. The performances were uneven as well Bilson injects Kim with a youthful vitality, but she's so shallow (her idea of a romantic gift is a mix-CD) it's hard to really like her. And Braff is all over here, never finding the character's center, always allowing himself to float along with the current. Only at the end, when Michael makes a firm decision about his life, is his character or the movie any good; but a strong five minutes at the end of a lackluster story can't save the movie. The Last Kiss is one you could easily do without, in this case.
Last Kiss moves very slowly in spots, sometimes so slowly you find yourself reaching for the remote. While it purports to be an examination of relationships, the lesson that it teaches is that they are all hard work and compromise and little joy in fact, the only time anyone in the movie is having any fun at all is when they are fooling around on someone, an odd message in a relationship film. It can sometimes be difficult to understand why Michael wants to be with Jenna when every other relationship in the movie is portrayed as a confining trap.
It doesn't help that Braff and Bennett have no chemistry in fact, Jenna is so thoroughly unlikable that it's hard to see what Michael sees in her other than stability, which, I can tell you from experience, is not that attractive to most 30-year old men. Another problem is that Braff has no chemistry with Bilson, either, so they never click as a couple. You don't really understand why he's with one girl over another, or why he'd choose to cheat with Kim, other than the fact that she's young and pretty and practically throws herself at him. Kim is meant to represent the promise of fading youth to Michael, another path which is merely fun and parties and fooling around, but the two are such a mismatch Michael seems forty when he's around Kim, not thirty that it's almost painful to watch, and the shallowness of that relationship is laid bare in five minutes. You can tell quite clearly that whatever Michael wants Kim can't give it to him, and you can see he's self-aware enough to realize that, and yet, there he is, fooling around with her.
I wouldn't say the movie doesn't make sense, but the plot and characters bent to serve the message, which is, relationships are hard work, not fun, but compromising who you are is better than being alone. Since I fundamentally disagree with such a pessimistic view of love and relationships (and feel, frankly, that it is better to be alone than with the wrong person), I had a lot of trouble with this film, and the weakly sketched characters and situations didn't help. The performances were uneven as well Bilson injects Kim with a youthful vitality, but she's so shallow (her idea of a romantic gift is a mix-CD) it's hard to really like her. And Braff is all over here, never finding the character's center, always allowing himself to float along with the current. Only at the end, when Michael makes a firm decision about his life, is his character or the movie any good; but a strong five minutes at the end of a lackluster story can't save the movie. The Last Kiss is one you could easily do without, in this case.