The Last Song Compare/Contrast

The Last Song, written by Nicholas Sparks, is the story of 18 year old Veronica “Ronnie” Miller’s reconnection with love and trust. Ronnie, a former piano prodigy who is angry at the world (and even angrier at her parents) after a divorce breaks up her family and sends her musician father packing to a small beach town. Years later, she remains distant from her parents, particularly Steve. She is so angry that she has abandoned the one thing that she and her father used to share in common, the piano. She spends the majority of her time defying her mother, shutting out her dad (she refuses to speak to him for three years), and developing some bad habits (namely shoplifting and clubbing). When Steve is diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer, he turns to his ex-wife, Kim, to help him reconnect with their children. Kim sends Ronnie and Jonah to North Carolina to spend the summer with their father, but at the request of Steve she does not tell the children that he will die soon. As with most cases, the book was so much better than the movie. The movie left out some of the best parts of the book. In the book, when Ronnie and her brother are sent to spend the summer with their father in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina; however, the in the movie he lives in Georgia. The first night day there Ronnie, Jonah, and Steve all go to the fair, but Ronnie soon runs off to be on her own bribing Jonah to keep their dad occupied. The meeting of Will and Ronnie, when he literally bumped into her at the beach volleyball game, was the same in both the book and the movie. The movie however, left out the part after the fair when Ronnie finally comes home; Ronnie makes a big deal about her dad playing the piano which leads him to put plywood up around the piano so that Ronnie would not have to see it. Leaving this out of the movie took out how Steve would go to any length to make his daughter happy. In the movie, the relationships between Steve and the minister, Will and Scott, Kim and Steve, and Ronnie and Blaze were downplayed to the point of almost nonexistence which took out most of the background out of the story, and made the movie a lot choppier and less interesting. Also, the fire that burned down the church was a huge part of the book, but played a much less role in the movie. In the book, when Will’s mother had the wreck where Mikey (Will’s younger brother) died, it was Scott who ended up saving Will and Will’s mother and tried saving Mikey, so Will felt indebted to Scott. In the book, the fire that burned down the church was blamed on Ronnie’s dad because he fell asleep with the candles still lit, and he was the only one in the church at the time was actually Scott’s fault because of fireworks that were shot off too close to the church. Because of Scott saving Will, Will felt that he could not tell the truth of the source of the fire. However, in the movie all of that was left out. The loggerhead turtles and Ronnie’s was the same in both the book and the movie. Ronnie built the homemade nest protector and stayed outside all night to make sure raccoons did not get ahold of the eggs. The interaction between Ashley (Will’s ex-girlfriend) and Ronnie after Ronnie and Will’s first date was the same in the book and the movie. The movie went more into detail with Will’s mother’s reaction to Ronnie than the book did. They played up the mother’s reaction to make up for the lack of Will’s father’s role in the movie. The movie and the book both depicted Ronnie’s trial the same, but the movie did not give as much detail and left out Will’s part in the trial. My favorite dialogue from the book was left out of the movie too and that was extremely disappointing.
Jonah-“Do you want a cookie?
Ronnie - What?
- A cookie. Like an Oreo. Do you want one?
- No.
- How can you not want a cookie?
- I just don't.
- Okay, fine, let’s say you did want a cookie. Let's say you were dying for a cookie, and there were cookies in the cupboard. What would you do?
- I'd eat a cookie?
- Exactly. That's all I'm saying.
- What are you saying?
- That if people want cookies, they should get a cookie. It's what people do.
- Let me guess. Dad won't let you have a cookie?
- No. Even though I'm practically starving to death, he won't even consider it. He says I have to have a sandwich first.
- And you don't think that's fair.
- You just said you'd get a cookie if you wanted one. So why can't I? I'm not a little kid. I can make my own decisions.
- Hmm. I can see why this bothers you so much.
- It's not fair. If he wants a cookie, he can have one. If you want a cookie, you can have one. But if I want a cookie, the rules don't count. Like you said, it's not fair.
- So what are you going to do?
- I'm going to eat a sandwich. Because I have to. Because the world isn't fair to ten-year-olds.”
Another main event in the book was Megan’s wedding which showed Ronnie that Will’s parents would never accept Ronnie into their circle. Ronnie would never be good enough in their eyes. The book portrayed this extremely well in my opinion even if the movie left out a few parts that made the book so interesting. The day after the wedding, Blaze and Marcus put on one of their fireball shows, but this time Marcus intentionally set Blaze on fire and left town. It was Will who rescued her and took her to the hospital. Leaving this out of the movie definitely left out a main clue as to who Will really is. The epilogue of the book told us about Ronnie going to Julliard after Steve’s funeral and Will showed up to tell her that he was transferring to Columbia and wanted her back. All of this was left out of the movie which was very disappointing.
Putting every detail of a book into the movie remake would be difficult, and it would make the movie very very long. However, leaving out key elements of books makes for an awful movie. Throw in Miley Cyrus and there is just no hope. Always stick to the book vs. seeing the movie.