From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

No scrubs

Zach Braff stars in a movie about facing adult obligations even if you're no Superman.

by Barbara Lester

September 13 2006

Every once in a blue moon, Hollywood unleashes a movie that sincerely captures the heart, mind and soul of a generation. The Last Kiss, a remake of the 2001 Italian film L'Ultimo Bacio, could register as strongly with today's audiences as The Graduate did with people who came of age in the late 1960s. That's not an exaggerated comparison, because both movies deal honestly with the trials of young relationships.

Not incidentally, Zach Braff -- after so brilliantly addressing growing pains in his writing-and-directorial debut, Garden State -- delivers another incisive performance in The Last Kiss. Braff plays Michael, who discovers that his longtime girlfriend, Jenna (Jacinda Barrett; see interview), is pregnant. They aren't getting married, though, which subtly disappoints Jenna's parents, convincingly portrayed by Tom Wilkinson and Blythe Danner.

With a plastered-on smile, Michael agrees to raise their child together, but his eyes reveal his increasing discomfort. At a friend's wedding -- of all places -- Michael meets a particularly fetching vixen named Kim, portrayed with a potent seductiveness by The OC's Rachel Bilson. The outcome of this encounter is easy to predict.

Despite the plot's rather-obvious elements, the movie finds real depth in the parallel conflicts experienced by Jenna's parents and Michael's male friends. Braff and some entertainment writers have compared The Last Kiss to Diner, but that association isn't accurate. This movie doesn't follow clichéd gender lines and will appeal equally to men and women. Casey Affleck, in his most complex role to date, portrays Michael's best friend, Chris, whose life is just plain miserable. He and his young wife have an infant son, and their marriage is disintegrating under the strain. Meanwhile, Izzy (Michael Weston), reeling because his unfaithful girlfriend has dumped him, becomes borderline-stalker mad, and the womanizing Kenny (Eric Christian Olsen) thinks he has found the ideal girlfriend in a woman who craves commitment-free sex, and tons of it.

Director Tony Goldwyn (A Walk on the Moon) wisely follows through on each character's story line and proves a master at sensitively depicting complex relationships onscreen. He gets considerable help from the searing and insightful screenplay by Paul Haggis, an Oscar winner for Crash and Million Dollar Baby, who adapts the original film with a sincere touch.

The care taken with The Last Kiss extends to its soundtrack. Braff, who won a Grammy Award for compiling the meaningful and popular Garden State soundtrack, also selected the music for the new movie. It remains to be seen if Snow Patrol ("Chocolate") will become the breakout band of this soundtrack just as The Shins did on the Garden State CD. Alt-rock singer-songwriter Imogen Heap contributes "Hide and Seek," and Coldplay provides typical alt-rock angst with "Warning Sign." Vocalists Aimee Mann, Rufus Wainwright and Fiona Apple also add considerable star power. But the soundtrack's wistful thrust comes from Braff's friend Joshua Radin, whose "Star Mile" plays over the film's closing credits. The song, which ironically sounds very much like a vintage Simon and Garfunkel tune, adds a sad undercurrent to the film's uncertain conclusion.

The Last Kiss doesn't resolve every issue it raises. Its slightly ambiguous ending acknowledges that life doesn't always come tied in a neat, little bow. If you've ever been in a bad relationship, The Last Kiss provides comfort by suggesting that you aren't alone.