Confusing to connect with and lacks emotional experience

Rating: 5/10 (28 November 2011)

"The Last Song", originally a novel written by Nicholas Sparks, is a movie about a summer romance of a rebellious girl. At first you are mesmerized by the touching story of the father-daughter relationship unfolding before your very eyes. The movie takes you into a story that has a great plot just not shown too well. The melodrama is pulled in way too many directions that it is snapped into pieces. As great as "The Last Song" is, it lacks an emotional experience.
The beginning was not a great start, Miley Cyrus storms in and out of each scene, to a point where it seems over done. Then towards the middle where it finally seems she's finally found a good medium she starts slacking and the character of Ronnie has disappeared. This could be because of the fact that Ronnie is discovering herself again with the blossom of her new relationship with her dad and boyfriend. While that is going on, on the foreground she discovers her father is ill and about to pass away. We get pushed into that so quick that it's hard to actually grasp the idea and have any emotion towards the Miller family. The ending would probably be the only emotional experience the viewer would receive. We are glad that Ronnie has finally decided to play the piano and finishes the piece her father left unwritten.
In snippets of the film you actually feel wrapped up and involved in the reality of the story. Most of the parts are in the middle of the film. When Ronnie's and Will's relationship is arising you feel as if you're taking part of the relationship as well. The relationship is too cute to not to give attention to. The viewer also seems to be wrapped up in the film when Steve Miller is back home from the hospital and spends time with his daughter. It gives this sort of warm feeling in your heart, that finally they have a close relationship and they act like a nothing ever went wrong. The weakest point in the film would be most of the beginning. It just makes you want to hate Ronnie for the way she behaves, and lacks the charisma she has in the rest of the film.
The only way that the film would create a hard-hitting emotional response is because the film is in some way relatable to the viewer. You can sympathize with Ronnie of her loss of her father, her break up with her boyfriend, or the divorce of her parents. If the film was a bit longer and if many of the elements weren't pushed to the views, the impact of the film would have been much greater. Since everything is just coming crashing without any connections, it leaves us as viewers confused and takes a while to actually follow along with what's going on. By the time you catch on, the emotional parts have probably passed. "The Last Song", directed by Julie Anne Robinson, would have gained more effect on the film if she put more of her own twist and if more of the ideas were connected.