Having just gotten around to watching
The Last Kiss, I now feel confident stating what I've long suspected: Paul Haggis is not particularly good at what he does. The bravura directorial hand of Clint Eastwood ably cut through the contrivance and melodrama in Haggis's
Million Dollar Baby script (although he failed to do the same for
Flags of Our Fathers), but I -- minority though I may be -- found
Crash embarrassing and laughable. It was unsubtle in both its message and its methods, and it still dumbfounds me that such a shoddy script with characters so broad, archetypal, and inconsistent was nominated for an Academy Award, let alone that it won.
The Last Kiss may be the first time I have tagged a film with this criticism -- one so vapid, self-righteous, and dismissive that I have completely lost respect for the opinions of others who have used it in their own assessments -- but I find it so central to my dislike of the film that I cannot leave it unmentioned: I simply hate the characters. This has never been a problem for me before, in films of both greater and lesser quality, but the shortsightedness of every single character becomes downright annoying halfway through the film. If
Crash was "everybody's racist, albeit in their own unique way" stretched over two hours,
The Last Kiss gives the same treatment to the epigram "everybody's self-possessed and unwilling to deal with their problems like adults." There is no voice of reason. We suspect that Tom Wilkinson, as Jacinda Barrett's father, will fill those shoes, but with the exception of one general, yet accurate, insight ("What you feel only matters to you, it's what you do to the people you say you love, that's all that matters,") his advice is every bit as naive and blindly idealistic as the wisdom the film's younger characters would impart if only they would stop prattling on about themselves and projecting their self-loathing onto their friends.
I've heard people complain they didn't like the end of the film. I don't really understand what they expect. Are they upset at which woman Zach Braff chooses? He made the right choice. Are they upset at said woman's ultimate decision? She made the right choice. I personally would have liked the film to end five seconds sooner, if only so I would know that the characters would spend a little bit more of their lives punishing themselves for their own immaturity.
I can hold the film at arm's length and commend it for being technically competent, but it's sort of like pointing out those one or two attractive features on a person to whom you are not at all attracted; sure, they've got their admirable points, but if they don't do it for me, what's the sense in pretending?