Miley Cyrus plays angry really, really well. In The Last Song, she stars as Ronnie Miller, a rebellious teenager sent off to live with her estranged father, Steve (Greg Kinnear), in a small, Georgia beach town with her younger (smarter) brother, Jonah (Bobby Coleman). Of course, given that this is a Nicholas Sparks' masterpiece, I was watching under extreme protest; as is typical when I relent under protest, I found that the movie did have some redeeming parts, even if it is as depressing as it is hopeful! But if you're reading this, then either a) you want me to tell you all about it, or b) you know all about it already (this is like Twilight-type hype) and you want to know how it relates to a faithful life.

Ronnie crashlands in Will Blakelee's (Liam Hemsworth, younger brother of Chris of Star Trek and Thor fame) small Georgian town after struggling for three years with her parents divorce and her dad's movement away from the family to the South. Now, she finds love in the arms of this persistent, deep country boy (who has been accepted to Columbia) and discovers the relationship that she wanted all along with her dad. She's still angry and defiant, but the two loves cause her love to grow in leaps and bounds in many ways.

Ronnie rescues a sea turtle nest from a rabid raccoon, which actually causes one of the first unities with Will, but it shows a compassionate side that she had left buried all along. Her relationship with her brother and her father grows as she realizes that they are funny, "cool," and that they care about her very much. Her relationship with Will allows her to see that the jabs about social standing and state of origin (North versus South) don't matter even while her peers are hung up on that type of separation. And her relationship with Blaze (Carly Chaikin) allows her the opportunity to be the defender and the friend that she hasn't allowed herself to be for so long, when she cares for someone who needs a protector. [It's not just Ronnie who grows; Will starts to example some of his own positive choice-making, defending, more manly persistence in the truth that he'd been lacking as well.]

But all of this is Sparks' creation, and he's hellbent (or so it seems) on determining how we function in the midst of tragedy, and The Last Song finds the Miller family struggling to figure out how they should move on. But because it IS a Sparks' creation, there is also hope, found in the midst of the refurnishing of a stained glass window and the return to music which Ronnie, a classically trained musical genius (Miley must've loved that), rejected in her anger amidst the divorce. In the moments of the greatest hardship, heroes rise to the occasion and choose good over evil, joy over pain, persistence over giving up. Maybe that's Sparks' gift to us, as he focuses us back on what is really important.

Thanks to the folks at Touchstone, I got to check out the blu-ray that allows a clearer shot of the beautiful beaches, the music video, and more! This version comes with both the DVD and the Blu-ray editions.