Last Kiss, The

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

The film marks Braff as a talent to watch, blessed with the sort of natural, everyman appeal that audiences eat up.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Screenwriter Paul Haggis (Crash, Million Dollar Baby) has turned the Italian romantic comedy "L'Ultimo Bacio" (2001) into something smarter, funnier, and more penetrating.

Empire Olly Richards

Crediting its audience with emotional intelligence, this rises well above your usual rom-com-dram. But if you’re planning on seeing it with your other half, be warned: it might invite some uncomfortable discussions afterwards.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

For the most part, The Last Kiss engages and pleases with its shaggy earnestness.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

When it comes to exploring our peculiar blindness as to what's important in our lives, the film is a disturbing but accurate road map.

Chicago Tribune Jessica Reaves

A smart, witty, sexy take on the perils of becoming an adult.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

The Last Kiss ponders what you give up -- and what you gain -- from sticking with what you've got.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Haggis' dialogue is virtually without clunkers, and it is delivered with the appropriate weight by a solid cast. Braff's limp performance is countered by Barrett's emotional riveting one (although he's in more scenes than she is).

Variety Lisa Nesselson

All-American adaptation by Paul Haggis of Gabriele Muccino's 2001 Italian hit "L'Ultimo bacio" is chummy, consensual and always watchable in Tony Goldwyn's polished rendition of emotional messiness.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

Proving that with solid direction, tight writing and strong performances an American remake can actually be as good as the foreign-language original, The Last Kiss, an unusually perceptive dramedy about contemporary relationships also manages to stand quite capably on its own two feet.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Danner's performance, as she rages against the dying of the romantic light, all but steals the movie from Braff.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Thanks to Haggis and the cast, who are convincing, often bitingly so, in their willingness to dive into the dark and unknowable depths of the modern American romantic relationship, The Last Kiss mirrors reality with remarkable faithfulness.

USA Today Claudia Puig

The movie occasionally reveals truths about relationships that, while not earth-shattering, are nonetheless entertaining and worth considering.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Paints itself into a corner from which it cannot escape. By the end, the movie is still in that corner, tossing out overlapping notes of hope and gloom and counting on viewers to write the ending they want. I'd leave the movie in the corner.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Veterans Danner and Wilkinson effortlessly make Anna and Stephen more interesting than all the youngsters combined.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Actor-turned-director Tony Goldwyn elicits solid performances from the cast, then undercuts them by resorting to a trite montage or a clunky set-piece, inevitably scored with an obtrusive rock tune telling us what to feel and when to feel it.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

The Last Kiss is more a capable-craftsman film than a work of genuine dramatic insight, but here and there it opens a window onto the terror and wonder of grown-up life, one its characters don't especially want to look through.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

An alarming male wallow passing as a fetching date-night dramedy.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

An exceptional Italian film becomes an average American one in this bland remake of Gabriele Muccino's "L' Ultimo Bacio."

Boston Globe Ty Burr

It very much wants to be "Garden State" five years down the line.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

If I were a member of Generation X, I would be fed up with Hollywood's obsession with the idea that its men are genetically incapable of growing up.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

The fallibility of the romantic ideal -- which is nonetheless indispensable on screen and off -- is something Hollywood has trouble dealing with. "The Break-up," in which Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughan did just what the title promised, would have been a more notable exception if it were anything like a good movie. The Last Kiss, while not quite a good movie either, at least deserves credit for its honesty.

Village Voice Ella Taylor

The Last Kiss isn't terrible, but if you're strapped for a night out it can easily wait till DVD. Better yet, it may be time to revisit "Diner."

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

The trouble with The Last Kiss comes down to Paul Haggis' screenplay.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Director Tony Goldwyn tries for the lyrical melancholy he brought to "A Walk on the Moon," but as Michael waits for days on Jenna's porch getting drenched (as irritating a scene as any in recent cinema), only the most rabid chick-flick fan will fail to notice that it's the movie that's all wet.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

Feels terminally generic and tone-deaf.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Unfortunately, nothing about Tony Goldwyn's vapid, navel-gazing, claustrophobic adaptation of a 2001 Italian film rings remotely true.