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The Last Kiss Our rating: Your rating: 1 2 3 4 Your Comments: see all MPAA rating: R (for sexuality, nudity and language) Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance Theater release: September 15, 2006 by DreamWorks Directed by: Tony Goldwyn Runtime: 1 hour 55 minutes Cast: Zach Braff (Michael), Jacinda Barrett (Jenna), Casey Affleck (Chris), Eric Christian Olsen (Kenny), Michael Weston (Izzy), Rachel Bilson (Kim), Blythe Danner (Anna), Tom Wilkinson (Stephen) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

What words make every self-respecting single man approaching the age of 30 break out into a cold sweat? "Receding hairline"? No. "Mutual funds"? Nada. "My parents are here. I'd like you to meet them." Bingo. Apparently these words, when spoken by a woman, confer so much terror that men will literally leave the country in order to avoid hearing them ever again.

Such is the state of mankind in The Last Kiss, a movie poised to resonate with the denizens of a modern romantic terrain wherein commitment is the province of women and stoics and most men exist in a perpetual state of wanderlust.

Starring Zach Braff of TV's Scrubs, The Last Kiss introduces us to Michael (Braff) and Jenna (Jacinda Barrett) as they announce to her parents Anna and Stephen (Blythe Danner and Tom Wilkinson) that she's pregnant. It's clear that after the 3-year-relationship of the younger couple, the older couple is expecting an engagement announcement, not a baby announcement. And while the excitement around the table is genuine, the announcement has clearly uncovered simmering discontentment within both couples.

Zach Braff as Michael, and Jacinda Barrett as Jenna

For Michael, the center of the story, life is just about perfect. He's almost 30. He's got a great job, good friends he's known since grade school, and a beautiful, intelligent, funny girlfriend. As he says, Jenna is just the kind of woman you want to settle down with. And yet, when fatherhood looms, the idea of settling down seems more like a drawn-out death sentence. Cue cute and flirty girl at a wedding reception (Rachel Bilson as Kim), and temptation to find potentially greener pastures becomes tangible. Will he or won't he?

Meanwhile, Michael's friends are in various stages of dysfunction in their own relationships. One's marriage is dissolving under the pressure of parenthood, one just had his heart broken by a long-time girlfriend, and the third has just found the woman of his dreams—one who will have hot, no-strings-attached sex with him. On the eve of another friend's wedding, they all wonder whether their lives are basically over at the ripe age of 29—their lust for uncomplicated women and their lust for the freedom of youth are often one in the same.

Tom Wilkinson and Blythe Danner play Jenna's parents

It's in this milieu that Michael contemplates the specter of spending the rest of his life with Jenna. He tells her he'll be willing to consider marriage when she can come up with three couples that she knows personally who have been together for longer than five years. She can only come up with her parents and a pair of ducks ("They mate for life!").

Needless to say, Jenna is devastated when her parents' marriage visibly implodes. The juxtaposition of Anna and Stephen's 30-year marriage and the attitudes that shape it against Michael and Jenna's relationship provide some of this film's most poignant insight. However, the full potential of this dynamic goes largely unfulfilled due to what seems like a few missing scenes that could have provided some helpful context in which to place the actions of both couples.

Best friends Kenny, Chris, Izzy, and Michael all face relationship crises

What-am-I-going-to-do-with-my-life angst isn't new territory for Braff, who channeled similar verve in the lauded indie flick, 2004's Garden State, which he wrote, directed, and stared in. And much like Garden State, it's going to be tempting for some to herald The Last Kiss as a movie for our moment, a cinematic snapshot of the way we live and love now. This is true insofar as it captures the affects of our prolonged adolescence (30 is the new 21!) and our idolization of youth (read: no one wants to be an adult) on the institution of marriage. The movie also illuminates the unsteady foundations so many relationships seem to rest upon these days, regardless of their duration (as evidenced by the increasing number of marriages dissolving after 20-plus years).

And yet, the movie often transitions clumsily between comedy and drama, and at times the characters act out of motivations that seem absurdly skewed. I saw The Last Kiss less than a week after my own 29th birthday. Given that I and many of my friends are still single while many of my married friends feel like they're hacking through new territory as they figure out what it means to love their spouses well, the questions about the nature of commitment that drive this movie are certainly not lost on me. Still, I found it hard to understand the mindset in which having a child with a person involved less commitment than marriage. As in, "Yes, we'll have a child together, but no, I'm not ready to marry you." I don't think you have to disapprove of premarital sex to think that this delineation doesn't make much practical sense.

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