The Last Kiss comes off sloppy

By Frank D’Adamo
Collegian Reporter
September 27, 2006

The Last Kiss, is a movie with a storyline that possesses potential, but lacks the “it” factor to make this movie enjoyable. In fact, the movie possesses many bad qualities, such as a bad script, bad casting and bad acting.

The movie stars Zach Braff of TV’s Scrubs, and also The O.C.’s Rachel Bilson, in her film debut. The movie looks into the lives of five people who are arguably “middle-aged” and who are second-guessing their lives. The five characters wonder what would make their lives complete, whether it’s taking the next step in a relationship, wanting to get out of a marriage, thinking their spouses don’t pay attention to them anymore, trying to get over the love of their life or the fact that having one night stand after one night stand is just too much after they have reached a certain age.

These five pieces of a relationship cover the most important aspects of a love life. However, due to a poor script, The Last Kiss really doesn’t connect. It comes off horribly, with a lot of scenes that just drag on and on with no real emotional value. Most of the characters come off as rather annoying. I’d sit there and watch them complain and I didn’t really care.

If a movie shows a strong connection, I would hope for the main character to achieve what he/she wants to achieve, but in this movie, I just want him and his friends to shut up. The perfect example would be Braff’s character, who is told by his friends that he is in a perfect relationship with the perfect woman, and yet he feels he is missing something.

Then, at another wedding he meets Bilson’s character, who plays a woman about 10 years younger than Braff. Innocent flirtation leads to something more, but not anything of real interest.

The Last Kiss hardly kept me intrigued. The only good thing I personally found about it was that Bilson has the acting capability of transforming from her “mean girl” persona on The O.C. to her character in this movie, who is actually a creepy stalker. Even though her film debut here wasn’t a success, I still believe that she will have a successful future in the film industry.

Paul Haggis, who I thought brilliantly directed and wrote Crash (2004), put me in complete shock when I realized he was involved in writing the screenplay for The Last Kiss. He’s gone from Oscar award-winning to Razzie-worthy.

My overall impression: I don’t think the movie is worth anyone’s time, money or energy. The Last Kiss was by far one of the worst movies of 2006, if not the worst.

dadamof1@lasalle.edu