Movie Review: The Last Song

Nicolas Sparks, the prolific and high-selling author of The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, and Dear John, releases his latest movie today, “The Last Song.” I spoke with Sparks about Miley Cyrus, this story of first love, and how he builds his popular stories.

Disney superstar Miley Cyrus headlines the film. She plays Ronnie, a recent high school graduate who travels with her younger brother to visit their father Steve (Greg Kinnear) in his fantastic house on the beach. Furious at him for the divorce of her parents and his subsequent desertion, Ronnie can barely stand to be in the same room as her once beloved dad.

She’s troubled.

We know this because she wears black.

Once Ronnie meets Will (Liam Hemsworth, as the tabloids breathlessly tell us, Cyrus's real-life boyfriend), things begin to change. Will plays competitive beach volleyball, works at an auto shop, volunteers at the aquarium, and stays up all night protecting sea turtle eggs from raccoons. That, plus the three hours a day he obviously spends in the gym keeping his sixpack intact, keep him busy. But not too busy to fall for Ronnie.

“I’ve always kind of taken it that love is love, regardless of whether it’s your first time or fifth time, whether you’re seventeen years old or eighty years old,” Sparks said, “Love feels wonderful. Makes you feel wonderful things.”

Of course, this being a Nicholas Sparks film, you know there’s trouble on the picture-perfect horizon. Like a turtle egg-eating raccoon, tragedy lurks in the dunes. Will’s snobby parents, Ronnie’s edgy friend, and a dark secret threaten to separate the happy couple. Of course, that’s nothing compared to the three-hankie news revealed in the second half.

Perhaps the most moving part of the movie has nothing to do with the Artist Formerly Known as Hannah Montana. Bobby Coleman, aged 11 or so in the film, is Ronnie’s younger brother Jonah. As a little boy still young enough to adore his father, yet broken up by fears of losing him again, he works quite well. His scenes will wrench tears even out of the most determined anti-emotional movie-goer.

Cyrus, in her first big-girl role, wavers between her cartoonish Disney persona and occasional genuine emotion. In her Disney show, she played a goofy, Lucille Ball-ish character composed mostly of pratfalls and one-liners. In this film, she’s expected to portray emotions from anger to first love to overwhelming grief.

There’s no blonde wig in the world that will fix that.

Clearly, she made an impression on Nicholas Sparks.  “Miley is a 17 year old girl,” he said, “Who also happens to be an uber –celebrity. She’s charming, she’s intelligent. And she’s very passionate about acting and about becoming a good actress. She’s fun. She’s funny. She makes me laugh. She’s got a good sense of humor.”

Despite the melodramatic tones, this is not one love story, but two. It’s a story of first love between Ronnie and Will, to be sure, but also a love story between Steve and his children. Sparks said, “This is a story about family. It’s a story about forgiveness. It’s coming of age. It’s a story about first love. It’s a story about father-daughter relationships.”

What is it about Nicholas Sparks stories that makes them so popular? I suspect in part, it’s because the lives of the characters complicated but the characters themselves aren’t. The people in his stories are invariably good. Will is a stand-up guy, the kind every father would love to have their daughter bring home. He even calls Ronnie’s father “Sir.” Steve, despite his mistakes in the past, is kind and loving and desperately wants his children’s love. Even Ronnie, with all her anger, is a good girl at heart. Blaze, a hard-bitten girl who tries to frame Ronnie, only needs to be understood before she turns around. Heck, her thuggish boyfriend Marcus would probably be a good guy as well, if only we got to know him better.

It’s a soft-focus view of the world, one informed by Spark’s Christian faith. “When you see the way [Steve] deals with his daughter, it’s very much with the lessons of Christ in mind,” he said, “It’s very much turn the other cheek. Forgiveness.  Love. His love for his children is very much like God’s love for all of his children. You have to do these things very subtle when you’re writing a screen play.”

The film is appropriate for family viewing, as Sparks intended. "It deals with some heavy issues, he said, "It’s certainly a very chaste film. I thnk there’s some kissing. It’s PG, it’s not even PG-13. It’s a very family friendly film. At the same time, you deal with elements. Divorce or a rebellious teenager. You’re dealing with real life issues."

Contrast “The Last Song” to last year’s “Crazy Heart,” not a PG film, in which burned out country musician Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) hurts the people he loves, acting out his own brokenness and, yes, evil. Bad Blake’s redemption, when it comes, feels truer.

I want to like Nicholas Sparks, but I find him unsatisfying. Faith, redemption, family, decency are all there on screen. I like his focus on families and on parenting. He creates characters who truly want to live good lives, instead of the selfish, self-focused characters we so often see. I like that he’s uncynical and clearly believes that love that can last a lifetime.

I just wish he’d let his characters be unappealing or even ugly at times, so they could change for the better. Then, maybe, we’d have something.