Saturday, September 16, 2006

The Last Kiss (2006, Tony Goldwyn)

Full disclosure: I saw THE BLACK DAHLIA on Friday night. It was so awesome. Not perfect, but awesome nonetheless. That said, the whole thing kind of knocked the wind out of me. I'm beginning to think that DePalma's work is best appreciated on DVD. Not because it doesn't work on the big screen- on the contrary, there's so much going on in his films that seeing them projected on the big screen makes them more than a little overwhelming, especially on the first viewing. I plan to see THE BLACK DAHLIA again in the near future, at which time I intend to write something about it besides a hummina hummina yow. Luckily (for me and perhaps for you too) I was able to catch a second movie afterwards. You know, to wind down.

And now, the review...

Thank goodness for movies like THE LAST KISS, which bring important problems of the world to our attention. I mean hey, forget penny-ante issues like the war in Iraq or global warming- what this world needs is more movies about how affluent, good-looking white dudes are insecure about getting old. But seriously, give me a fucking break with this. Grow up, OK? I know that all the magazines say that this generation is stuck in a state of arrested development (not to be confused with the greatly-missed TV show of the same name), but there are many more compelling ideas for a feature film that aren't being explored- say, Adam's Beckett adaptation. And if you do find it necessary to trot out this idea once more, surely there are more eloquent expressions of it than Paul Haggis' hammer-subtle screenplay, with next to nothing in the way of real characterization and a distracting number of thesis-heavy monologues (sound familiar?). To be honest, I didn't hate this or anything- it's too bland for that- but by the time the third montage came along, I had simply stopped giving a shit. Chalk it up to movie premises I'm just tired of, like modern-minded youth taking on strict traditions, or a group of people in a quaint little town bonding together for unlikely and quirky reasons. Rating: *1/2.

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