Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that while this film has the shape of a romantic comedy -- young men afraid to commit while their partners are ready -- it's labeled a "dramedy" and includes some unusually explicit sex scenes (naked bodies and some thrusting visible) and language (lots of the f-word, as well as other profanity and sexual slang). The plot follows young men and women (and one set of parents) who can't agree on commitments, with one child and one pregnancy involved. Acting out their disagreements, characters cheat on one another and lie. Characters drink frequently, smoke cigarettes, and, in one scene, share a joint.
Families can talk about the difficulty of making commitments. How do movies (like this one) promote the stereotype that men resist and women desire commitment (specifically marriage)? What messages does the movie convey about women in general?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Cynthia Fuchs
THE LAST KISS follows four friends facing adult responsibilities and commitments. Feeling as if he's "in crisis," Michael (Zach Braff) typifies the group: His "perfect" girlfriend Jenna (Jacinda Barrett) is unexpectedly pregnant. As Michael sits frozen at her parents' dinner table following her announcement of their good news, his face is plainly panicked, but no one around him sees.
Chris (Casey Affleck) is feeling similarly out of control, owing in part to the fact that he's recently had a baby with hiw wife, Lisa (Lauren Lee Smith). Since the movie mostly takes the boys' points of view, Lisa is never shown without the wailing child on her hip, demanding that Chris help her, because she is -- yet again -- exhausted. From his perspective, she and the baby are almost frightening: They wait outside the bathroom door for his emergence while he hides his face in his hands, worrying at his own resentment.
Both Chris and Michael see a nightmare version of themselves in Izzy (Michael Weston), so desperate over his lost love (Marley Shelton) that he begs her to take him back in public (at yet another friend's wedding). They see a kind of ideal in Kenny (Eric Christian Olsen), who brings a different girl home every night. At 29 years old, tending bar in town, long-haired, buff Kenny sees no reason to "grow up." His buddies envy his seeming lack of fear.
Based on Gabriele Muccino's L'Ultimo Bacio (2001), the movie makes light of the men's inabilities to speak their concerns and desires, in part by setting them against needy, sometimes sitcommish women. Aside from repeated shots of Lisa-with-baby and Jenna worrying about her parents, Anna (Blythe Danner) and Stephen (Tom Wilkinson), who are on the verge of their own break-up after 30 years of marriage, the movie includes a particular temptation for Michael. Lovely, preciously young college student Kim (Rachel Bilson of The O.C.) takes an inexplicable liking to this dour architect, offering herself as his "last chance at happiness."
The men make choices, some poor, some inevitable, while the women wait for them to decide. Michael explains an especially bad decision as a function of his being "afraid." While it features lots of well-acted, loosely connected dramedic sketches-as-scenes, the movie's general direction is all too clear and conventional. The men will remain afraid, and the women will put up with it.
Families who like this movie might also like Lonesome Jim (with Casey Affleck), Zach Braff's Garden State, or Closer.
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentSeveral sex scenes include couples under covers/in the dark/against walls, as well as nude body parts and sexual movement; a couple appears after sex, shot from above on a bearskin rug (breasts visible); sexy dancing in a club (bodies rubbing); sexual/derogatory slang. |
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ViolenceA car runs into a tree (which then falls on it, injuring no one); an argument leads to punching and flailing. |
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LanguageFrequent (25+) uses of the f-word, in anger and frustration, as well as other profanity ("ass," "s--t," "bitch," "hell"). |
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Social BehaviorCharacters lie, commit adultery, and lash out verbally in anger. Female characters aren't portrayed in the best light; many are shrewish, sexually predatory, clingy, or all of the above. |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoDrinking, cigarette-smoking, marijuana smoking. |
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