Four buddies believe in love in ‘The Last Kiss’
The four lifelong buddies in “The Last Kiss” have no trouble believing in love. They just don’t believe it will last.
The friends harbor fears about loyalty, sex, commitment, romance and parenthood in this sometimes touching, often funny, surprisingly biting and intermittently unsettling comedy drama about the pursuit of personal happiness by guys about to turn 30.
The R-rated picture centers on Michael (Zach Braff of TV’s “Scrubs”), an architect who considers returning to the carefree days of college after his longtime girlfriend (Jacinda Barrett of “Poseidon”) informs him that she’s pregnant. The news chills the commitment-wary young professional, who views becoming a parent as an ending rather than a beginning.
He sees how fatherhood is destroying the relationship his friend, Chris (Casey Affleck of “Ocean’s Eleven”), has with his wife and is jealous of the free-spirited lifestyle of his handsome, bed-hopping buddy, Kenny (Eric Christian Olsen of “Cellular”). The group’s fourth member, Izzy (Michael Weston of “Garden State”), is so shocked and awed at being dumped by his beloved girlfriend that he crashes and burns whenever he tries to move forward with his shattered life.
In this cookie-cutter era of play-it-safe filmmaking, “The Last Kiss,” based on the Italian film “L’Ultimo Baccio,” written by Gabriele Muccino, is an unusual Hollywood picture in that it starts off messy and remains that way. Braff’s Michael proves to be a cad who manipulates his pregnant girlfriend, lies to a wide-eyed college student, Kim (Rachel Bilson of TV’s “The OC”) and acts in a self-centered way that earns him no audience sympathy.
The talented Braff, who enjoyed screen success with “Garden State,” which he also directed, creates a character who knows he’s going in the wrong direction with his personal life but pushes forward anyway. It’s rewarding to see a young actor take the unappealing role of a guy who makes huge personal transgressions and, as so often happens in real life, is punished for them.
Paul Haggis, who directed the Oscar-winning “Crash” and won an Academy Award for its screenplay, penned the warts-and-all screenplay for “The Last Kiss,” and director Tony Goldwyn (“A Walk on the Moon”) embraces the flawed characters and brings them to full-bodied life.
Haggis and Goldwyn show that it isn’t just those in their 20s and 30s who are having emotional and romantic difficulties in today’s complicated world. The picture also touches upon the disintegrating marriage between the upper-middle-class parents (Blythe Danner of Showtime’s “Huff” and Tom Wilkinson of “In the Bedroom”) of Braff’s significant other. The wife, now in her 50s and looking back on her years as a wife and mother, seeks passion in her life and in desperation tries to connect with an ex-flame from college with predictable results.
Haggis and Goldwyn keep “The Last Kiss” on track by sometimes touching upon the type of bawdy broad humor found in “Wedding Crashers.” Yet the writer and director never sacrifice the serious issues that flow just under the surface of this often-insightful drama about the power of forgiveness and the importance of growing up.
FILM REVIEW
“The Last Kiss”
Grade: B+
Starring: Zach Braff, Jacinda Barrett, Casey Affleck, Michael Weston, Eric Christian Olsen, Rachel Bilson, Blythe Danner and Tom Wilkinson; written by Paul Haggis, adapted from the Italian screenplay for “L’Ultimo Baccio by Gabriele Muccino; produced by Tom Rosenberg and Gary Lucchesi; directed by Tony Goldwyn.
Running Time: 100 minutes.
Parental Guide: R rating (sex, nudity, harsh four-letter profanity, drug use, adult themes).