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Parents' Guide to

The Last Kiss

By Cynthia Fuchs, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 18+

Cheating, breaking up, making up. Adults only.

Movie R 2006 115 minutes
The Last Kiss Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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What's the Story?

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, partly because he's recently had a baby with his wife, Lisa (Lauren Lee Smith). 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.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: Not yet rated
Kids say: Not yet rated

While it features lots of well-acted, loosely connected dramedic sketches-as-scenes, the movie's general direction is all too clear and conventional. Based on Gabriele Muccino's L'Ultimo Bacio (2001), THE LAST KISS makes light of the men's inabilities to speak their concerns and desires, in part by setting them against needy, sometimes sitcommish women. 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. Aside from repeated shots of Lisa-with-baby and Jenna worrying about her parents, 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." The men will remain afraid, and the women will put up with it.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • 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?

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