After hearing that the recent film, The Last Song, was just another typical “chick flick,” I set out to refute this stereotype. Contradicting the sappy romance cliche, this film not only captures the plot of Nicholas Sparks’s 2009 novel, but also excellently portrays a dramatic, realistic story.

Before I saw the movie, I first read the novel, which is set in Wilmington, North Carolina and centers around a family broken by divorce, specifically the rebellious daughter Veronica (Ronnie) Miller.

After living in New York City with her little brother, Jonah, and her mother, Kim, Ronnie struggles with figuring out her future among the conflict with her family. Though she is accepted into Juilliard as a pianist, she refuses to play due to her anger towards her father, Steve, who taught her the skill as a child.

However, Ronnie’s refusal to play and her angry attitude take a 360-degree turn after a summer, though dreaded at first, with her father.

In the beginning of her sojourn, she continues to rebel against Steve, ignoring him and avoiding him. This results in new friendships with Galadriel (Blaze) and Blaze’s emotionally abusive boyfriend, Marcus, both of whom are bad influences. Ronnie’s relationship with the “bad crowd” at first makes readers think she belongs with them, but her actions in standing up to their juvenile behavior exposes her caring and kind heart.

In a somewhat corny and typical example of love at first sight, beach volleyball hunk Will Blakelee accidentally spills a strawberry milkshake on Ronnie one day, which sparks his interest in her. Will’s ambition to know Ronnie better and their romantic relationship makes the story very enticing, and compelled me to continue reading. Also, Ronnie and Will’s relationship is very well constructed and illustrated in a manner in which I could barely wait to see what happens next.

The rest of the novel encompasses a variety of realistic emotions and experiences, including love, heartbreak, reconciliation, forgiveness and immense loss. All the these factors combine to completely reshape Ronnie’s opinions and actions in life, and leave the reader completely shocked at the ending.

One aspect of the novel that I enjoyed was Steve’s Christian attitude in dealing with his divorce and separation from his children. He often sought the counsel of his local minister, Pastor Harris, and plays the piano at the church. Unfortunately, the Christian aspect was not included in the film.

Immediately after reading this wonderful book, I was so excited to be able to see the movie version and was thrilled with its quality that I saw it more than once. Although the movie, directed by Julie Anne Robinson, left out many important events that were contained in the book, the ending was much more enjoyable, emotional and surprising than it was in the book.

To my surprise, Ronnie was played by teenage star Miley Cyrus. I have never been a big fan of Cyrus, and although her voice has improved greatly on the motion picture soundtrack, her acting skills are still at an amatuer level. In my opinion, choosing Cyrus for the lead role was a mistake, but probably caused many Cyrus fans to see the movie.

In contrast to Cyrus’s acting ability, Greg Kinnear (Steve), Liam Hemsworth (Will) and Bobby Coleman (Jonah) are all fantastic in their roles. Kinnear portrays himself as such a genuine, caring and loving father that caused so much more believability and emotion from the audience. He also has many funny lines to add humor to the somewhat dramatic movie.

Along with Hemsworth’s great charisma, his thoughtfulness towards Ronnie creates a loving atmosphere and takes the position of what many girls dream about about for a relationship, a modern day “knight in shining armor.”

Coleman, though only 12 years old, amazed me with how well he portrayed his character during moments of grief and emotion. I was very impressed at the level of acting this young actor has. Towards the end of the flick, a scene occurs where Jonah is utterly sad and crying over the outcome of a dramatic event. Not only was I crying myself when watching, but I found other audience members in the theater crying around me.

With the excellent acting of many characters, the realistic plot and the scenes that cause viewers to laugh, cry and smile, the movie version of The Last Song was just as great, if not better, than the novel. I would highly recommend any teenager to read this book and see the movie.

The Last Song is playing in most local theaters. For tickets and showtimes, visit Fandango.

For more movie reviews, visit the April 19 article, Greek mythology translates poorly.