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With his thirtieth birthday approaching and Jenna (Jacinda Barrett), his girlfriend of three years, pregnant with their first child, Michael (Zach Braff) begins to feel like his life is over. From here on out, everything is planned for him. And he feels trapped. When he meets college girl Kim (Rachel Bilson) at his friend’s wedding, she seems to offer the perfect escape.
Meanwhile, everyone around Michael is a mess. His friend, Izzy (Michael Weston) is devastated over his recent breakup with the love of his life. Another friend, Chris (Casey Affleck), locks himself in the bathroom to escape his exhausted wife and their constantly screaming baby. Kenny (Eric Christian Olsen) thought he had the perfect commitment-free relationship with a great new girl—until she tried to get him to meet her parents. Even Jenna’s mother, Anna (Blythe Danner), struggles with her 30-year marriage, which seems to have come to a dead end.
As Izzy and the guys plan a road trip to get away from it all and Anna packs her bags and moves into a hotel, Michael leaves his pregnant girlfriend behind and decides to go out and add a little excitement to his life, convinced he won’t get caught.
The Last Kiss isn’t your typical romantic comedy. Yes, the guys are pretty funny from time to time (usually in that “what the heck is he thinking?” kind of way). And, yes, there are couples—some of which manage to find their own kind of happy ending. But The Last Kiss isn’t a cheesy, warm-fuzzy, feel-good movie—it’s more drama than brainless chick flick. Just about every character in the movie, in fact, is in the midst of some form of crisis—a mid-life crisis or a quarter-life crisis or a late-life crisis or anything in between. They’re all freaking out over something—a broken relationship, a too-perfect relationship, a relationship that isn’t as fun as it once was. And while that makes the movie incredibly real, it also makes it, at times, incredibly difficult to watch. Because we’ve all experienced some kind of crisis. We’ve all woken up at some point and realized that something—whether it’s a relationship or a job or even life in general—didn’t go as we planned. A lot of things are completely out of our control—and often what really matters is how we deal with what we’ve been given. Therein lies the point of The Last Kiss. It’s about how people handle the situations they’ve been given. Some characters handle crisis with maturity. Others are painfully immature—still thinking they have all the answers. Some make pretty big mistakes.
So The Last Kiss isn’t what you might expect. It’s not a chick flick—or a date movie. It’s sometimes heartbreaking and sometimes touching—and, sometimes, it’s even a little bit funny. And though some of the characters aren’t always totally likeable—and though you might find the film to be somewhat emotionally draining—it offers a powerful and well-written story that’s sure to make you stop and think.
Blu-ray Review:
The Last Kiss isn’t really the kind of movie that compels you to dive into the special features as soon as the credits roll. Despite its comedic moments, it’s a pretty heavy movie—so, after you finish watching it, you’re probably less likely to check out the extras and more likely to go off by yourself to think about your hopes and dreams and life in general. But if you do feel like checking out the special features, the Blu-ray release does have plenty to offer.
Along with two (yes, two) commentary tracks—one with director Tony Goldwyn and star Zach Braff and another with Goldwyn, Braff, and a handful of other cast members—the special features menu also includes seven deleted/extended scenes (including two alternate endings), a gag reel (which seems rather out of place), and the Braff-directed video for the Cary Brothers song, “Ride.” There are also several making-of features. Director Goldwyn sets everything up with the short feature, Filmmakers’ Perspective, which discusses the original Italian version of The Last Kiss and offers some thoughts on the movie and its story. Then comes a much longer feature, Getting Together, which covers the screenplay (which was written by Paul Haggis), along with each and every character in the film. There are two others, too—Behind Our Favorite Scenes, which covers four scenes in the film, discussing how they came together and why they were important, as well as the filmmakers’ Final Thoughts.
If you’re interested in gaining more insight into The Last Kiss, the Filmmakers’ Perspective is worth a few minutes of your time. The rest of the extras, however, are pretty long (especially Getting Together), and they’re not especially insightful. So, instead of turning straight to the special features menu after watching the movie, you’ll probably benefit more by going for a long walk and taking some time to think (and maybe talk) about it.
