The Last Kiss

The Last Kiss

In today’s world, we are surrounded by subliminal messages. They are in movies, television shows, commercials, billboards, and many other places that surround us in our daily lives. We don’t notice these messages because our culture has socialized us to believe that they are the norms. These messages include ideals stressing the importance of youth and beauty, heterosexuality and male strength, woman as sex objects or victims, and a world ran by patriarchs. I chose to watch a movie that I had already seen, The Last Kiss. I am sad to say it was filled with those ideals and many more. The first time I saw the movie I didn’t pick up on any of these because I to am raised and socialized in the culture reflected in the film.
This movie, like all others, follows a definite formula. It has women as victims, iron maidens, sex objects, and caregivers. It has your villain who ruins relationships. It has macho men that are sex obsessed, or afraid of commitment. It has your character with a drinking/depression problem and many other stereotypical roles we tend to see in all the movies we watch. Then, just when I thought it might break the formula and be a true to life sad movie, they threw in a quick happy ending right before the credits. God forbid the media portray people as real characters with real emotions and a sad ending in a film. Why is this the case you may ask, it simply comes down to ratings and money.
I feel character analysis is an extremely important in this film. Each character fits into a different stereotype found in our society. The main character, Michael, is your typical 29 year old guy. He has a decent job as an architect, a great girlfriend whom he lives with, and a ton of commitment problems. His girlfriend is pregnant with there baby and he is afraid of marriage because it is “so final”, yet he is having a child with her. He started to see his life flash before his eyes and realizes there will be no more surprises, just a predictably happy...

Similar Essays