The Last Song

**The Last Song** is a 2010 American live-action film directed by Julie Anne Robinson.

It focuses on a troubled teenager as she reconnects with her estranged father and falls in love during a Summer in a quiet Southern United States beach town.

The film was released on March 31, 2010.

## Plot

At 17, Veronica "Ronnie" Miller has been rebellious since her parents divorced and her father moved to Georgia three years ago. She had been caught shoplifting in NYC, where she lives. Once a child prodigy pianist under her father, Steve Miller, Ronnie hasn't played piano nor spoken with him since. Juilliard School has been interested in her since she was young, but she refuses to attend.

Kim Miller sends the teen and her younger brother, Jonah to spend the summer with Steve and reconnect. He is a former Juilliard School professor and concert pianist, who now lives quietly in Wrightsville Beach, his home town. He's making a replacement stained-glass window for the local church lost in a recent fire.

Upon arrival, Ronnie is hostile towards everyone, including handsome, popular Will Blakelee. He crashes into her during a volleyball match, dumping her shake on her. Shrugging him off, Ronnie meets Blaze, an outcast who lives with her boyfriend Marcus. That night, by a beach campfire, he hits on Ronnie and Blaze mistakenly thinks it's the other way around. In revenge, Blaze later gets her arrested for shoplifting.

Later, Ronnie discovers a loggerhead sea turtle nest by her dad's. Protecting it from raccoons, she meets Will again as he is an aquarium volunteer. After spending the whole night defending the eggs, she discovers he is deeper than expected, and they connect.

The next day, Will takes Ronnie to the aquarium. She is told that it is part of his m.o. with girls. When Will returns to the turtle's nest, an irate Ronnie says she won't be just another girl and they should end it. They kiss passionately, becoming a couple.

Will takes Ronnie home believing his parents are away. She discovers he lives in a large, gated mansion and ends up meeting his parents as they returned early. After an awkward dinner, alone outside Will reveals his brother passed away recently. Will and Ronnie profess their mutual love, and she shows him she is a talented pianist.

At Will’s volleyball game, Ronnie hears locals blame her father for the church fire, but ignores them. When she receives the invitation to Will’s sister’s wedding, she shows her father in the church ruin and they discuss what caused the fire. When a distraught Ronnie laments about what he said to Will, he asks Scott to divulge the truth about what happened, but he refuses.

On the way to get a dress, Ronnie sees Marcus abandoning Blaze. So she gives her all the money from Steve, so Jonah helps her pay for and pick out her dress, At the wedding, as Ronnie and Will are enjoying themselves, Blaze thanks her: she has left Marcus and moved home. He suddenly arrives, causing a scene and provoking Will when he insults Ronnie.

Will and Ronnie arrive back at Steve’s and Jonah bursts out as the turtle eggs are hatching. While watching the eggs hatch, Steve collapses and is brought to the hospital. His terminal cancer has spread to his lungs which is why Ronnie and Jonah are there for the summer.

Ronnie stays with Steve in the hospital while Jonah and Will continue with the stained-glass window. Steve’s cancer progresses and he eventually requests hospice at home. As Will and Jonah finished the window, they take Steve to see it installed. Feeling even more pressure from knowing the truth about the church fire, Will asks Scott again to confess, and he finally agrees.

Scott and Will come over and finally explain: Scott, Will, and other friends were behind the church horsing around with Marcus and his friends. Will had left, while Scott stayed. The church accidentally ignited as they were playing with fire. Scott allowed Steve to take the blame, although Will wanted to report the crime to the police. He did not out of loyalty to Scott. Steve insists on not reporting it and is OK with taking the blame. Ronnie overhears and breaks up with Will.

Kim arrives once they know of Steve’s condition. Jonah and Steve have a tearful moment before Jonah goes home to NYC while Ronnie stays to take care of him. She tries to make up for lost time with her father. She continues working on his composition (titled "For Ronnie"), as his hands ache. He is sitting, listening to her play, and dies just as she finishes.

At his funeral, Ronnie declares that no words could ever show how wonderful her father really was. Instead, she shares with them their song. As she sits to play, sunlight shines through the stained-glass window. She smiles as she feels he's there.

After the funeral, outside the church, Will tells Ronnie that both he and her dad liked the song and disappears into the crowd. Having decided to attend Juilliard, she is packing up to return to NYC when she sees Will outside. He apologizes for everything, surprising Ronnie by revealing that he will be transferring to Columbia University to be with her and they passionately kiss.

## Cast and Characters

* Miley Cyrus as Veronica "Ronnie" L. Miller
* Liam Hemsworth as Will Blakelee
* Greg Kinnear as Steve Miller
* Kelly Preston as Kim Miller
* Bobby Coleman as Jonah Miller
* Nick Lashaway as Marcus
* Carly Chaikin as Blaze
* Adam Barnett as Teddy
* Kate Vernon as Susan Blakelee
* Nick Searcy as Tom Blakelee
* Melissa Ordway as Ashley
* Carrie Malabre as Cassie
* Rhoda Griffis as Steve's Doctor.
* Lance E. Nichols as Pastor Charlie Harris
* Hallock Beals as Scott
* Stephanie Leigh Schlund as Megan Blakelee

## Music

"When I Look at You", song by Miley Cyrus, was originally from her EP The Time of Our Lives released August 31, 2009, but was included on the soundtrack because it fit the movie well. The song is used in the background of the film's trailer.

At the launch of his album Cradlesong on June 30, 2009, Rob Thomas told the New York Daily News, "My buddy Adam Shankman, who just directed Miley's movie, called me on the phone the other day and was like, 'You have to write a song for this movie.'... I would definitely write a song for her [Cyrus]." In the end, however, Thomas was unable to contribute music to The Last Song, citing "scheduling problems" as the reason.

The soundtrack features a track by Casey McPherson, frontman of the band Alpha Rev which signed with Disney's Hollywood Records in August 2008. Variety magazine's Anthony D'Alessandro notes that the use of soundtracks as "launch pads" for new Disney artists is a common practice. "A Different Side of Me" by Allstar Weekend was also included on the soundtrack. They are a group newly signed to Hollywood Records after winning the N.B.T. Competition through the Disney Channel. The soundtrack was released in the U.S. on March 23, 2010. Though not featured on soundtrack, Snow Patrol's 2006 single "Shut Your Eyes" and Feist's "I Feel It All" also appear in the film. The soundtrack had a major increase in sales in the week of the DVD release. The soundtrack peaked at #104 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.

## Production

### Development

The Last Song began when Disney executive Jason Reed met with Miley Cyrus to discuss her future career plans. At the time, Cyrus had been known mainly for starring as a pop star on Disney Channel's Hannah Montana, a children's television series that had expanded into a globally successful media franchise. As the series neared its end, Disney hoped to create a star vehicle to help Cyrus break out of the pop persona she had developed through the franchise and to introduce Cyrus to older audiences. During her meeting with Reed, Cyrus expressed a desire to film a movie similar to A Walk to Remember, a 2002 film based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks. A Walk to Remember helped Mandy Moore, then a teen pop star much like Cyrus, launch an acting career. Disney called Adam Shankman, director of A Walk to Remember, who signed on to produce the potential Cyrus film along with his sister and Offspring Entertainment production company partner, Jennifer Gibgot. Tish Cyrus, Cyrus' mother and co-manager, became the film's executive producer. Cyrus' acting representation, United Talent Agency, then contacted Sparks, also a UTA client, to ask if he had plans for a novel appropriate for a film adaptation starring Cyrus.

At the time, Sparks had been wrapping up The Lucky One and beginning to ponder an original plot for his next book. The author told himself he could "either go younger than 20 or older than 50", having recently written about every age in between. Wary of venturing above 50 again after his best-seller The Notebook, Sparks had already been leaning toward writing a teenager story when he received a phone call from Gibgot on behalf of the film in August 2008. Sparks recalled, "Jennifer asked if I had anything laying around? I said no, but funny you should say that…" Sparks returned with a premise by the end of July 2008. Once the proposal had been agreed upon by Cyrus, her family, and Offspring Entertainment, Sparks, with the aid of co-screenplay writer Jeff Van Wie, completed the screenplay before starting the book. Sparks explained that such an arrangement was necessary to accommodate filming in summer 2009, as Disney had scheduled, but, "this is similar to the way it's gone with movies based on my novels; it's just out of order." Sparks and Van Wie completed the first draft of the screenplay in December 2008, the first rewrite later that month, and the second and final rewrite in January 2009. Both rewrites took about one or two days, and Sparks found them relatively simple. The finished screenplay was approximately 100 pages long. While The Last Song is not the first screenplay Sparks has written, it is his first to be optioned for film. The novel was completed in June 2009, the same time shooting for the film began, and was published on September 8, 2009 by Grand Central Publishing. The plot of the film and novel remained secret throughout development.

Julie Anne Robinson signed on to direct the film in May 2009, attracted by the emotion present in the story. The Last Song is Robinson's first feature film, although she is a veteran of television and theater. Robinson previously helmed episodes of American series such as Weeds and Grey's Anatomy and earned a Golden Globe nomination and a BAFTA award for her work on the BBC series Viva Blackpool.

In a June 2009 blog entry, Cyrus said she had "always been a fan of Nicholas Sparks" and that she had been waiting to do a production separate from the Hannah Montana franchise "for a long time", but had not found the time to do so due to her TV show, music, tours, and Hannah Montana: The Movie. To film The Last Song, Cyrus' contract for season four of Hannah Montana included an extra-long hiatus.

### Writing and Title

Recognizing the popularity of A Walk to Remember as both a novel and film, Sparks "put all his thoughts into that, trying to make the story as different from A Walk to Remember as [he could], but try to capture the same feelings." Sparks' experiences as a father and as a high-school track and field coach also helped shape the plot, and characters Jonah Miller and Will Blakelee are respectively based on Sparks' sons Landon and Miles. Sparks felt Ronnie was the hardest character to write for because he had "never been a 17-year-old, angry teenage girl". Ronnie became a composite character inspired by several young women Sparks has known, such as his nieces. Cyrus herself influenced Ronnie fairly little, although her singing career did inspire the musical elements of the story. Ronnie plays only the piano and Cyrus only sings a small amount in the film, though she does contribute to its soundtrack.

Disney did not give Sparks limitations on the topics featured in The Last Song, which include underaged drinking, infidelity, and terminal illness, but Sparks says that Disney desired to work with him in part because "they've read my novels. My teenagers… don't do bad things. I just don't write that. I don't write about adultery, I don't write profanity... I'll certainly have love scenes in my novels, but they're always between consenting adults." Still, Sparks acknowledges that elements of the screenplay may have been toned down by the director or the studio after he finished. As dictated by the Writers Guild of America, Sparks receives full credit for his work, although the amount of his original screenplay retained in the film is uncertain. For example, Sparks says the character of Marcus, leader of the gang of thugs, was likely altered for the film.

The project remained nameless for several months after Sparks' initial meeting with Disney in July 2008. Sparks wrote in a September 2008 online chat that "I have the idea completed, but no title. That's common for me though. Titles come last." The film was referred to by the working title "Untitled Miley Cyrus Project" In March 2009, Variety magazine called "The Last Song" a "tentative" title.

### Casting

Cyrus chose the name "Ronnie" for her character in honor of her grandfather, Ron Cyrus, who died in 2006. Unknown to many, the character had first been named "Kirby" by Sparks and later changed to "Hilary". New interviews with Sparks reveal he imagined Cyrus in the role "only a little" during the writing process. At the completion of the screenplay, Sparks was concerned that Cyrus would not be able to successfully execute the role: "The first thing I thought when I finished the screenplay was, wow, I hope she can do this, this is a tough role because I'm bringing you through a whole gamut of emotion and you're just a 16-year-old girl who's done the Disney Channel. Are you able to do this as an actress?", After visiting the set and watching Cyrus film, Sparks' worries abated. To play the New York teen, Cyrus worked with a dialect coach to lose her Southern accent and learned to play classical piano. After she completed filming, Cyrus said that in a case of life imitating art, she had matured and "changed a lot" over the course of her summer in Georgia, similar to the way Ronnie does in the film. "Showing this movie, I feel like I'm really showing a part of my growth as a person as well. So I'm really excited for people to see it."

In April 2009, Disney officials chose Rafi Gavron for the part of Will Blakelee, but switched to Australian actor Liam Hemsworth by May. On May 18, 2009, the decision to cast Greg Kinnear as Steve Miller was made final. Kelly Preston's part as Kim was the first role she had accepted since the death of her son, Jett Travolta. After being introduced to Cal Johnson, the film's stunt coordinator, Adam Barnett landed the role of Teddy in May 2009 due to his previously developed talent in juggling and hackey sack.

### Post-production

The Last Song entered post-production following the end of filming on August 18, 2009. Automated dialogue replacement took place in mid-September; Beals and Chaikin stated they had gone in to record on September 11 and September 18, respectively. Chaikin said she had worked for five and a half hours. The director's cut was presented to the studio on October 1, 2009. The Motion Picture Association of America reviewed the film and issued it a PG rating for "thematic material, some violence, sensuality and mild language" three weeks later.

## Release

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures originally scheduled The Last Song for wide release on January 8, 2010, but was delayed from January 8, 2010 to March 31, 2010.

### Marketing

Upon the release of the novel on September 8, Sparks began a book tour reaching around 13 cities and gave several interviews. During these events, he discussed writing both the novel and the screenplay. Cyrus and Walt Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook discussed the film on September 11, 2009 at the first D23 Expo. The first clips from the film appeared online on September 11, 2009, interspersed within one version of the "When I Look at You" music video. The film's first trailer was integrated into Cyrus' Wonder World Tour and premiered during the tour's opening night on September 14, 2009 in Portland, Oregon. Midway through each concert, the trailer was shown on large video screens surrounding the stage. After it finished, Cyrus played a white piano and sang "When I Look at You" while film clips continued to play on the screens behind her. On November 16, 2009, the first three film stills were released via the film's Facebook page. The following day, the film's trailer premiered online. The film's premiere was held in Los Angeles on March 25, 2010. Cyrus was originally planned to go to the UK premiere of the film, but due to the April 14, 2010 eruption of the volcano Eyjafjallajökull that blanketed Europe in volcanic ash and grounded all flights to and from the continent, she was unable to attend.

### Home Media

The Last Song was released on DVD and Blu-ray on August 17, 2010.

## Reception

### Critical Response

The Last Song was panned by critics. As of June 2020, the film holds a 21% approval rating on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 119 reviews with an average rating of 4.01 out of 10. The critical consensus is summarized: "As shamelessly manipulative as any Nicholas Sparks production, The Last Song is done no favours by its miscast and over matched star, Miley Cyrus." Metacritic, which assigns normalized ratings to films, The Last Song holds a "generally unfavourable" score of 33% based on 27 reviews.

Reviewers were critical of Sparks' and Van Wie's screenplay and formulaic storyline. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle says the screenplay's faults include several "scenes that make no emotional sense" and claims, "The plot construction is weak. Incidents don't flow one into the next." When reviewing Cyrus's performance, critics acknowledged her stage presence, but were frequently critical of her acting abilities. Jay Stone of The Ottawa Citizen says Cyrus's portrayal of angry Ronnie "consist[s] of pouting and sneering [...] Cyrus doesn't have a lot of range, but she does have presence." Rob Nelson of Variety writes, "Cyrus, alas, hasn't yet learned not to act [...] But she does show off her considerable chops as a pianist and remains reasonably likable throughout." A. O. Scott of The New York Times believes that although "her Hannah Montana persona has a certain aggressive charm", in The Last Song she "play-act[s] rather than exploring the motives and feelings of her character." Roger Ebert gave the film a mixed 2.5/4. He praised the acting and directing, but derided the plot and Sparks' writing.

Kinnear's performance has been widely praised. A. O. Scott writes, "it's nice to see Mr. Kinnear play an entirely sympathetic character for a change [but] his slyness and subtlety seem wasted in a project that has no interest in either." Michael Phillips of The Chicago Tribune writes, "Reliably honest and affecting, Kinnear fights off the waves of corn in much the same way that Tibetan monk defied the tsunami in 2012." Glen Whipp of the Associated Press writes, "Kinnear lends the movie a dignity it doesn't deserve". Stone advises, "I'd watch out for Liam Hemsworth". Stephen Witty of The Star-Ledger commends "newcomer Carly Chaikin who plays the "bad girl"... with an exciting mixture of wildness and vulnerability. Halfway in, I began wishing desperately that Chaikin was playing the lead." Reception for Coleman was mixed; Jeff Vice of "Deseret News" calls him a "hammy irritant" while Jon Bream of the Star Tribune writes, "The most memorable acting is by Coleman, 12... who gets a lot of great lines and delivers them with aplomb".

### Box Office

The Last Song performed well for when it was released for the first time, garnering $5,125,103 on approximately 3,300 screens at 2,673 theaters for an average of $1,917 per theater.

It has grossed $62,950,384 in North America and $26,091,272 in other territories for a worldwide total of $89,041,656.

In its opening weekend, the film grossed $16,007,426, finishing fourth at the box office behind Clash of the Titans ($61,235,105), Why Did I Get Married Too? ($29,289,537) and How to Train Your Dragon ($29,010,044).