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By Maggie Scott

With her role as Veronica “Ronnie” Miller in the weeper, The Last Song, pop music superstar Miley Cyrus has declared emancipation from her alter egos, Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana.

Although she’s enduring one last season on the Disney Channel show portraying the girl who leads a double life, Cyrus is making it clear that going forward in her career, she’s calling the shots.  And one of those shots is backing off recording her phenomenally amazing voice, that was such a selling point for her last film, Hannah Montana: the Movie, and concentrating on making movies.  That would be a shame, judging from her effort, nice-and-Hallmark-Hall-of Fame quality that it is, as an emotionally struggling older teen in The Last Song.

The movie, although fairly prosaic on the whole, is at its best delivering moments of effective gut-wrenching—none of them supplied by Cyrus.  Supported by veterans Greg Kinnear and Kelly Preston as her father and mother, Cyrus doesn’t break a sweat as a high school grad ambivalently struggling with unresolved anger and grief over her parents’ divorce.

Mom seems to have it together, but Dad has been dealing with an incident from his past involving a church fire.  Steve has opened his home to Ronnie and her younger brother Jonah (Bobby Coleman) for the summer; and, at first, he gets the cold shoulder from his daughter, as she storms out of his house on the beach of Tybee Island, Georgia.

What particularly sets her off with her father is any mention of Julliard or any piano playing within earshot of her.  She’s got a gift, but right now she’s found the perfect way to get back at her folks by rejecting anything to do with music.  According to Jonah, Ronnie is suffering from P.M.S.—Pissed At Men Syndrome.  In spite of looking like she’s part of a Goth gang, Ronnie apparently has some pretty solid core values: she’s a vegetarian; doesn’t drink or do drugs; and isn’t interested in having strange young men paw her.

Although it looks as though she’s set her mind on drifting through the summer, someone starts to get through to her:  A young man who plays sand volleyball, works as a car mechanic and volunteers at the local aquarium.  Will (Liam Hemsworth) doesn’t let Ronnie’s “ice cube act” get to him, or the fact that his first romantic act was to knock a milkshake all over her.  He sees a way to start winning her over when he joins her in her mission to save some sea turtle eggs from marauding raccoons.

As they say, one thing leads to another, and young love blooms, then nearly gets plucked when Ronnie fears she’s “just the next girl on Will’s list.”   Just as the ice cube is thawing, tragedy strikes. Although some may think the work writer Nicholas Sparks gets on best-seller lists is pure pablum, this reviewer is particularly stuck on the film version of his novel, Message in a Bottle (’99).  The recent Dear John made some scratch at the box office, and The Last Song is sure to do the same with the sure-fire draw of Cyrus.

But, those who don’t know Cyrus  should give the film a try, because they will be moved and delighted primarily by the sweet performance of Coleman as Jonah.  Hemsworth provides sturdy, sensitive heartthrob work; and director Julie Ann Robinson keeps the melodramatics in check, while steering Cyrus respectably through a performance that shows not just her character but herself becoming a woman right before our eyes.  A Touchstone Pictures release, rated PG.

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