Perhaps because they're drilled into our heads from a young age, numbers are an important part of our lives. Not only do they work well in figuring out how to do math homework, pay bills, and keep score in various games, but they're also essential in keeping track of time, both daily, yearly and beyond.
Accordingly, certain numbers in such regards become defining moments, and for some people, one of them is turning 30. While the teens are anticipated, the twenties pretty much feel like an extension of them, and the forties (while traumatic) arrive with the feeling of inevitability, the thirties put the official stamp on the fact that you're no longer a kid, or even a young adult.
For some people, that results in the first of what will usually be several personal crises, where the worrywarts fret that their lives are over (or will be soon thereafter) and begin to question where they are in life in terms of profession and relationships.
The latter are the main focus of "The Last Kiss," a mostly dramatic and part comedic look at those on the precipice of becoming thirty-somethings, and how they feel about their significant others. One -- played by Zach Braff doing something of a continuation of themes found in his last pic, "Garden State" -- feels like his life -- with his pregnant girlfriend played by Jacinda Barrett -- has now been channeled into an inescapable rut.
His friend -- Casey Affleck -- similarly feels trapped in his marriage and recently acquired status of new father, while another (Michael Weston) is hung-up on his ex-girlfriend, and the fourth member of the soon to no longer be in his twenties brigade (Eric Christian Olsen) is enjoying some rigorous casual sex that's "ruined" when his partner wants to introduce him to her parents. And then there are the pregnant girlfriend's parents -- Blyth Danner and Tom Wilkinson -- who also play off the 30-year mark, but for them it's the amount of time they've been married, apparently unhappily so for a while.
Working from Paul Haggis' adaptation of the original 2001 Italian film, "L Ultimo Bacio," director Tony Goldwyn manages to juggle all of those storylines, but the result isn't particularly novel (above and beyond the remake issue), entertaining (unless you're into relational trauma and lots of yelling) or revelatory in terms of the overall man-woman relationship themes.
Beyond the fact that many of the characters aren't likeable -- which is something of a big issue for a dramedy about relationships -- the troubling issue is that the women portrayed here are the source of all problems, at least in the men's eyes.
Affleck's character feels trapped in his marriage with the only apparent thing his wife has done is give birth to their child and then be a harried, at-home mom who simply needs a break from their bundle of joy. Once Kenny's girlfriend wants to do the meet the parents bit, he bails, while Danner's character revisits her former midlife crisis (with, of all people, one of the Ghostbusters), thus threatening to derail their marriage.
And despite being the seemingly perfect woman (smart, pretty, nice, etc.), Barrett's character causes Braff's all of his grief. Okay, to be fair, it's not really her exactly, but rather the thought that he's going to be "stuck" with her for the rest of his life, with no surprises or chance to live it up like he's done in the past (although he's such a wet noodle character one gets the impression he's pining over imagined missed opportunities rather than his actual track record).
Anyway, then along comes another woman -- Rachel Bilson playing a somewhat overeager college student, apparently with a thing for older guys -- who promises to be his one last chance at fun (he discusses his melancholy with her, thus only ramping up her appetite for a fling back at the dorm). Of course, he is -- to quote the old Squeeze song -- tempted by the fruit of another, but she turns out to be a rotten apple of sorts as their fling -- initiated by her -- threatens to ruin Michael and Jenna's relationship.
Through it all, Goldwyn tries to infuse little bits of humor into all of the imploding melodrama. Yet, the mostly unlikable characters and subsequent yelling, screaming and pleading for forgiveness soon become rather wearisome. And the fact that we've seen this sort of film before -- especially when it's been done better and with more flair -- makes this one feel like an unremarkable and rather forgettable cinematic buss. Competent but otherwise nothing special, "The Last Kiss" rates as 5 out of 10.
![[Logo]](/images/screenit_logo2.jpg){kind=logo}
