movie review monday: the last kiss

Full Synopsis:
A successful 30-year-old (Zach Braff) with a the perfect girlfriend (Jacinda Barrett) and a lucrative outlook on life struggles with the increasing pressures of adulthood as he weighs the merits of settling down with the woman who loves him against risking it all to be with a comely co-ed (Rachel Bilson) in director Tony Goldwyn's remake of Gabriele Muccino's 2001 comedy drama. Crash and Million Dollar Baby screenwriter Paul Haggis adapts a script originally penned by Italian filmmaker Muccino, and Casey Affleck, Eric Christian Olsen, and Tom Wilkinson co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Running Time:
1 hour 43 minutes

As are girls wont to do, my friend KP and I talk about what we want out of relationships and what we hope our marriages look like. Both of us sometimes waver between wanting and not wanting to get married, and this movie pretty much sums up what we are both afraid of. It's a very well done movie, and well acted. I believed all of the characters. I could see real people facing those exact situations and reacting in the same ways.

I guess that's the problem I have with the movie. It was well done and underrated, but entirely depressing. The Last Kiss presents a slice of life, with its joy and heartache, its messiness, and how oftentimes situations seem to end unfinished. I wil go see anything Zach Braff is in, only partly because I have this weird fake crush on him. Mostly it's because his projects always challenge the viewer to examine themselves and their world in a way they either hadn't before or at least in awhile. Truth be told, if my boyfriend or husband cheated on me, I'd be gone so fast his head would spin.

Rating: four out of five stars, but reccommended only with hesitation. You must be ready to think and maybe be a little sad if you choose to see this movie.