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Fretting over his commitment to Jenna, Michael begins an affair with Kim (Rachel Bilson, right)

As in Garden State, the soundtrack for The Last Kiss is a sort of defacto cast member and provides an engaging backdrop for the story. If only the story were more engaging. Flawed characters alone don't make for remarkable storytelling and while all of the performances are strong in and of themselves, the script could have used some of the aforementioned context to more deeply invest the audience in the lives of these couples. This cinematic sin by omission is especially odd given that the script was adapted (from a popular Italian movie) by Paul Haggis, hot off dramatic heavy-hitters Million Dollar Baby and Crash.

In the end, I think the movie would have also done well to balance the romantic angst it presents with at least one couple that was cheerfully together and had a healthy relationship over a long run. Yes, divorce rates are high. But I still think, on occasion, boys turn into men and marry women they stick with for better and for worse. I choose to think that, on the whole, men want committed relationships and women don't become shrill when you slip a ring on their finger. And while marriage certainly is hard work, I also chose to hope that people really can live, if not always happily, joyfully ever after. How very (old) Hollywood of me.

1. In The Last Kiss women often dangled their seeming lack of a need for commitment in front of the men they hoped to woo—and the men took the bait. But to a woman, it was a farce. All of them wanted more the next morning, leaving the impression that what men and women really want (freedom versus commitment) are fundamentally at odds with each other. Do you think this is truly the case? Read Genesis What affect do you think the curse at the end of the chapter has on ongoing relations between men and women?
   
   
2. Do you think Michael needed to be with Kim in order to realize that he really wanted to be with Jenna? Do you think this realization was genuine or the knee-jerk reaction of a guilty person.
   
   
3. Why do you think Anna returned to Stephen? What sort of history do you think this couple shares?
   
   
4. Do you think Jenna's streak of perfectionism affected Michael's ability to honestly grapple with the decision to commit? Why or why not?
   
   
5. What do you think Jenna and Michael's future holds?

The Last Kiss features a number of sex scenes (at least four, including one between two women) that are arguably gratuitous and explicit. The rest of the movie is populated with more casual references to sex and sexual innuendo. Affairs abound, as does profanity.

Photos © Copyright DreamWorks

© Lisa Ann Cockrel 2006, subject to licensing agreement with Christianity Today International. All rights reserved. Click for reprint information.

Zach Braff made the leap from television sitcom star ("Scrubs") to feature film writer/director/leading man with Garden State a few years ago.

Now he's back as a leading man in The Last Kiss, but this time it's Tony Goldwyn in the director's chair, with a screenplay written by Oscar-winner Paul Haggis, who wrote Million Dollar Baby and Crash.

Based on L'Ultimo bacio, a film by Gabriel Muccino, The Last Kiss is about a young man whose life is thrown into confusion when his girlfriend Jenna (Jacinda Barrett) reveals that she's pregnant. What's a guy to do? Well, fall in love with a flirtatious college girl (Rachel Bilson), of course!

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