It's hard being a white male who is approaching the age of 30. Well, maybe not, but at least that's what the makers of "The Last Kiss" would like the viewer to believe. In fact, it's the main basis behind the characters and their plight.
Written by Paul Haggis, the writer behind "Crash" and "Million Dollar Baby," and based on the 5-year-old Italian film "L'Ultimo Bacio," the film plays like a movie for guys who want to be in touch with their feelings but don't know how. Beginning at the wedding of a mutual friend, the film centers on Michael (Zach Braff), an architect dealing with becoming a thirtysomething and his feelings for his longtime girlfriend, Jenna (Jacinda Barrett). Michael is uncertain of what he wants in life. When excitement comes in the form of college student Kim (Rachel Bilson), who comes onto him strongly at the wedding reception, Michael enters a life crisis. As Kim philosophizes early on, "the world is moving so fast that we start freaking out now before our parents did."
But all around Michael are signs of his impending future. His best friend, Chris (Casey Affleck), has a newborn baby with his wife and can't wait to leave his house to get air. This feeling of asphyxiation, in addition to constant fighting between him and his wife, has led Chris to contemplate leaving his wife, Lisa (Lauren Lee Smith), if only to ensure that his kid grows up in a healthy environment.
Elsewhere, Jenna's parents are going through turmoil, as her mom, Anna (Blythe Danner), has confessed infidelity to her husband, Stephen (Tom Wilkinson). As Jenna notes to Michael, everyone around them is falling apart. Of course, the audience knows that Michael is about to wash away the sand castle that is their life, because he is, naturally, immature.
It would be hard to match the heavy-handedness of "Crash," and the script isn't that trite, but it comes very close. The problem isn't that the characters' plights are clich?d, which they are, but more disappointingly is the way they are handled in the screenplay. Even when Michael commits selfish acts like going to a frat party with Kim and an interesting situation is created, director Tony Goldwyn uses it as a springboard to invent fantastical yet formulaic circumstances.
There is an underlying theme of the main characters being pulled by currents unseen but by them and their inability to fight against the tide. Michael knows that Kim is dragging him in the wrong direction, just as Chris realizes that his wife is pulling him into a state unfit for them to raise their child. However, while Chris proves to make the right decision in the end, the story barely focuses at all on him and his dilemma. Instead, it spotlights Michael, who makes all the wrong decisions, only to blame it on how hard it is to be on the cusp of 30.
To the writer and director, the film shows Michael's marked maturity and acceptance of the married life by having him stand outside their home for a week waiting for Jenna to let him back into their home and her life. But to the viewer, this final plot development shows the filmmaker's ineptitude when it comes to creating a realistic situation.
The Plato she is, Kim says early on in the film, "If we stop breathing, we die." Which makes one wonder: If one is going to act this immature when turning 30, maybe one should stop breathing.
