The Last Kiss - All too true to life???

[pamplemousse]

I watched this movie a few days ago... And I'm still getting over it (call me an emotionally immature wreck). For starters, it should come with some sort of emotional heath warning, advising against watching it if you've had a break-up and find you're still at the stage where you don't want to settle for a reason why. I don't feel like I'm ever going to get over my fiancé, whom I broke up with a month ago - though watching The Last Kiss added insult to injury: I don't think I ever want to be with anyone ever again.

I haven't seen the Italian basis for the film, L'ultimo bacio, though I think I can imagine what people mean when they say it was a comedy ('of sorts'), whilst The Last Kiss is downright depressing. In the tradition of contemporary [huge generalisation] Italian films (and, of Spanish films, Almodóvar's spring to mind, among others), The Last Kiss presents characters as if in the flesh and blood - that is, you don't really feel as if you're watching them, but that you're there, with them; there's no sense of a deity-like viewpoint, since you stick with Michael (Braff) throughout. Combined with convincing performances from a fabulously talented cast, the audience is left alone to make judgements, facing Michael's moral dilemmas as he does. It's a stark contrast (and a refreshing one) to the traditional rom-com, where although the characters are credibly balanced (i.e. no-one is faultless, nor are there any black-hearted villains), it's quite clear to the audience when someone has made a mistake, and the appeal lies in the dramatic irony that you know they're going to correct it eventually, yet that you still wish you could jump in and offer some advice.

On the other hand, unlike the sentiment of those Italian and Spanish movies, in which the director somehow manages to take a perfectly plausible scenario - one which is an engaging and heart-wrenching depiction of 'real' life - yet exaggerates the characters so they're caricatured just enough to be they're comical (if tragicomical), this film presents almost realer than real individuals. Consequently, I found that The Last Kiss failed to evoke much empathy for Michael in me. I think this may have had something to do with the complete lack of comedy, an absence so pronounced that I couldn't help thinking that relief and redemption might only be attained through suicide. With a comic element, you want the characters feel genuine; you can't help but want to understand them, so you try to see things from their point of view - to empathise with them. It's as if, whatever they might do wrong, 'we all make mistakes'. You really want them to sort things out. However, Michael, and the other characters, played only one dimension of real life (the side you see during serious relationship calamities). Whilst this was so convincing I began to loathe my own heart for its mere existence, I really wish the scriptwriters had allowed the cast to let on that no one can keep that up for very long*.

Nevertheless, I can understand why comedy played no part in The Last Kiss. Firstly, there was strong sense of the dichotomy between repression and outburst, which was so intense[ly painful] that I couldn't see any way for humour to make an appearance. This contrast of repression and outburst created a form of humour, I suppose, in the irony that Jenna's (Michael's fiancée) parents and Chris (Michael's friend) were stuck in unbearable relations, whilst Michael placed his ideal relationship in jeopardy through infidelity (but if you find that funny, you have problems). Secondly, at 115 minutes, it's about average length, yet it felt shorter, in spite of the viewing experience being a painful one. *It was as if it was intended to depict a snap-shot of life as it might be remembered by those who had experienced it: skeletal and poignant, and certainly devoid of humour; so much happening so quickly.

Wait, there was one amusing point: whilst Michael does his penance, waiting outside (literally) on his doorstep for his fiancée to forgive him for having cheated on her, the next-door neighbour offers him a glass of water ('it's sparkling') with an encouraging grin - and a slice of lemon.

I need to see the original, but only once I've got over The Last Kiss - and my own fiancé. To contradict everything I just wrote, given the reasons for our break-up, I should be able to empathise acutely with almost every character. Perhaps, in truth, it's so realistic, I don't want to.