Review: The Last Kiss

Posted by: Tom Milroy  •  September 15, 2006 @ 11:59am

Filed under: Reviews

How about that? A movie about young people that is actually intelligent and contains no fart scenes, all right, one fart scene.

You can thank Paul Haggis for that. He wrote the screenplay for The Last Kiss. Mr. Haggis also wrote the Oscar-winning movies Million Dollar Baby and Crash. The dialogue crackles.

When Michael, as played by Zach Braff, approaches his 30th birthday, he gets restless because his life contains no surprises. His fiance Jenna (Jacinda Barrett) is ten weeks pregnant and she wants to settle down and buy a house. At a wedding reception, Michael is approached by a young university student named Kim, played by Rachel Bilson. The O.C. star makes her big screen debut and she's very good. Before long, Michael and Kim hook up, but he realizes it's Jenna he loves.

In a sub-plot, Jenna's mother leaves her father after having a fling. The parents are played by Tom Wilkinson and the elegant Blythe Danner. It was interesting to hear a Coldplay song on the soundtrack, featuring Blythe's son-in-law Chris Martin.

Michael's friends are an interesting crew, featuring Casey Affleck and Eric Christian Olsen (Beerfest).

In some respects, this is Garden State Two, but Zach Braff is just so likable and believeable. You can't help but like the guy. We can only hope The Last Kiss is not his last movie.