Critics are singing the blues over Miley Cyrus’ new movie. The Disney Princess is quickly learning that isn’t nearly as easy when you don’t have a long blonde wig and hoards of adoring teen girls fawning over you.
Who knew?
Cyrus, 17, is putting her recording career on hold after five years of playing Hannah Montana to concentrate on acting full-time, but has been widely savaged for her performance as a tough New York teen sent to spend the summer in a Southern beach town with her estranged father.
The tearjerker romantic drama, written by best-selling The Notebook author Nicholas Sparks, has garnered only a seven percent approval rating on Rotton Tomatoes, and created an avalanche of controversy over Miley’s acting and her lack of chemistry with co-star-turned-off screen BF Liam Hemsworth.
Here are some of the film’s most scathing reviews:
The New York Post: “It’s the worst of both worlds as Disney cash cow Miley Cyrus makes the most dubious “dramatic” debut of any singer since Britney Spears in The Last Song — a risible Nicholas Sparks tear-jerker that makes the recent, similar film derived from Sparks’ Dear John look like The Notebook by comparison…”
Chicago Tribune critic Michael Phillips remarks: “Cyrus plays an angry, heartbroken girl in a way that, sad to say, shows off her ‘Hannah Montana’-drilled tricks and tics and air of entitlement more than her dramatic range.”
“I can’t recall ever squirming as much as I did during Ronnie and Will’s first kiss; shiny, buff Liam Hemsworth looks like he’s locking lips with an Andy Hardy–era Mickey Rooney in a wig,” The Village Voice says.
A critic for The New York Times writes: “Acting, for the moment at least, seems almost entirely beyond her…she pouts, slouches, storms in and out of rooms and occasionally cracks a snaggle-toothed smile, but most of the time she seems to be mugging for the camera, play-acting rather than exploring the motives and feelings of her character.”
“A more convincing star could make this a degree more tolerable, although in Cyrus’s defense not much more,” writes The Boston Globe. “Allegedly, this is the film in which Cyrus gets all, like, dramatic. If by ‘dramatic’ one means pouty, sullen, and cute, then OK.”
The Miami Herald: “Little girls still scream for Miley Cyrus. You too may experience the need to scream, albeit for different reasons, should you take one (or more) of them to see The Last Song, yet another maudlin remake of a Nicholas Sparks bestseller.”
Miley last two movies — Hannah Montana: The Movie and Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour — both opened No.1 at the North American box office. At least one Hollywood box office analyst, Paul Dergarabedian, believes the poor reviews are unlikely to dissuade Miley’s young fans from turning out in droves to see The Last Song.
“Reviews generally don’t matter with this type of film. Because of Miley Cyrus’s audience, they will turn out to see her no matter what,” Dergarabedian said.
The Last Song hits theaters Friday.
