DVD Review: The Last Kiss

If you are looking for a movie about relationships and the difficulties that go with them then take a look at this movie. I thought it was one of the best of 2006 because it really shows its characters at various points in their love relationships and how they deal with their lives. I think it is very relavent not just to people turning 30 (which most of these characters are) but to people of all ages. In this movie there is at least one character that all of us can identify with. The main story arc concerns Michael (Zach Braff) and his girlfriend Jenna (Jacinda Barrett) who has just become pregnant. This part of the film deals with the doubt Michael feels about where he is now and what his life will mean in the future now that he has a child on the way. He feels his life doesn’t include anymore surprises until a chance meeting at a friend’s wedding with Kim (Rachel Bilson) makes him begin to question that notion. Kim is a twenty-something college student who piques Michael’s interest and makes him feel alive again. Of course he acts on this newfound energy and both the anticipation of and fallout from his actions is what drives the movie and the other characters around him. I like the movie because we see how relationships function at many different levels, including the 30-year marriage of Jenna’s parents (Blythe Danner and Tom Wilkinson who are both outstanding); the troubled young marriage of Michael’s friend Chris (Casey Affleck) and the recent troubled breakup of their friends Izzy and Arianna (Michael Weston and Marley Shelton.) Tony Goldwyn’s film lets us look in on love and relationships and makes it easy for us to understand because we all have felt the way these characters feel at some point in our lives. We know where they are coming from so we know why they make the choices they do. The film is not very well known but it really struck me as being one of the best I’ve seen on love and relationships because it shows how things really are for most of us. See it for the outstanding performances by the ensemble cast. There really isn’t a bad one in the whole film. You will not be disappointed.