Positively Surprised

Rating: 9/10 (1 April 2010)

Before seeing this movie I wasn't surprised to read negative reviews for it. After all, we're talking about Miley Cyrus here, who is the number one celebrity of her age group and fame often brings overly harsh criticism.
I did not read the book, so I'm just going to judge the movie. I knew it'd be romantic and I knew it'd be sad. That's what Nicholas Sparks is usually all about. If you don't like that, this isn't going to be your kind of film.
That being said, I was very positively surprised by the credit given to the feelings and abilities of young adults in this movie. There is often a kind of prejudice that teenagers' cannot have complex feelings that should be taken seriously. This story is all about a young adult, though, and the movie deals with her first love as well as her relationship with her family, and how she handles loss. There are very few movies that explore these issues seriously and solely from the point of view of the young adult, which was very refreshing to me.
I was also impressed by Miley's performance. Hannah Montana didn't require a lot of serious emotions, so I was curious to see how she would handle this material. Especially in the scenes with Kinnear (who is an awesome actor) she is very believable. Pretty much everyone in the movie theater was crying. If you get that type of response from your audience, you did your job.
I also felt myself smiling and even grinning during the more lighthearted scenes, which also indicate great performances. Eliciting emotions in your viewers is what acting is all about. Unlike many other actresses of her generation, Miley isn't afraid to not look perfect at all times (which would have weakened her performance). She pouts and storms and cries and laughs out loud, all the while assuring the audience of her natural charms.
This movie is not super-exciting or full of action. It's about people's feelings. It's calm and melancholy and cute and sad. If you like that kind of movie you should go see this!