The Last Kiss film review

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THE LAST KISS

There are good date movies and then are bad date movies. The Last Kiss would qualify for the latter department. Not because it's a bad film - on the contrary, it's very good - but because watching it is enough to convince you to never get involved in a relationship. Ever. That The Last Kiss is an anti-romance film is perhaps a little surprising considering it's based on the 2001 film, L'Ultimo Bacio, written and directed by Gabriele Muccino. You see Signor Muccino is an Italian and Italians, as everyone knows, are a nation of inveterate romantics.

Muccino's script has been rewritten by Paul Haggis, the Oscar winning writer of Crash. Haggis has repeated here the technique he employed so effectively in Crash of weaving numerous overlapping threads into a cohesive story. But where as Crash dealt with the culturally and economically diverse populous of Los Angeles, The Last Kiss deals with the variety of problems couples have to contend with. The outcome is hardly a ringing endorsement for love.

The plot revolves around Michael (Zach Braff), a 29 year-old architect whose girlfriend Jenna (Jacinda Barrett) is pregnant. With his 30s fast approaching, along with impending parenthood, Michael is scared that his apparently perfect life is effectively over. "Everything is so planned out. There are no more surprises," he bemoans. Offering different perspectives on romance are Michael's three best friends. Izzy (Michael Weston) is a wreck after being dumped by his girlfriend. Chris' (Casey Affleck) floundering marriage is being accelerated to its demise by the strains of parenthood, while Kenny (Eric Christian Olsen) tries to stave of adulthood by bed hopping. Proving that even 30-year marriages are no indication of matrimonial happiness are Jenna's parents Anna (Blythe Danner) and Stephen (Tom Wilkinson).

When Michael encounters the youthfully carefree Kim (Rachel Bilson), the result is the surprise he feared would never happen. But when Jenna finds out, and his ordered life disintegrates, it instead becomes the surprise he wished had never happened.

Ably directed by Tony Goldwyn and buoyed by strong performances all round, in particular from the affable Braff and wrenching Barrett, The Last Kiss is a cautionary tale, well observed and articulated. Its cynical, sobering slant is punctuated by plenty of tender and humorous moments which offer a glimmer of light to fall on the treacherous world of love.

Kevin Murphy