Cinema Connoisseur: Hannah Montana makes Miley top banana
She's conquered the worlds of television, music, fashion and lunch boxes, so it was only a matter of time before Hannah Montana was immortalized in the medium of film. Hannah Montana: The Movie hit theatres in Spring, earning more money than the CEOs of General Motors, Ford and Fannie Mae combined. If you missed it (and you'd better have a doctor's note for doing so), fret not. The film was released recently on DVD and Blu-ray so you can watch it in the comfort of your own home for years to come.
If you've been living in a cave the past few years (which probably isn't such a bad idea in the current economic climate), you may not have heard of this Hannah Montana character. Miley Cyrus portrays Miley Stewart, a normal country girl, and her alter ego Hannah Montana, who is a huge pop star. Stewart goes to great lengths to keep her identity a secret — she wears a blonde wig. Hell, it's more than Clark Kent ever did.
In Hannah Montana: The Movie, Miley is finding it hard to remain a normal girl, even when not in Hannah attire. Her father Robby (played by Miley Cyrus' real life daddy Billy Ray) fears that his daughter is turning into a self-absorbed monster. So he tricks her into coming with him to the family farm in Tennessee.
While at first Miley misses the champagne wishes and caviar dreams of her normal life, she soon realizes how much she adores the simple life. This simple life could be destroyed however by a greedy land developer who plans to make the town more upscale. I tell you, land developers are the ultimate film villains. I have yet to see a film about a land developer who is kind and good-hearted. One who plans to bulldoze a shopping mall so that he can build an orphanage. Though the point of the trip was to take a breather from the Hannah Montana lifestyle, it is Hannah, ironically enough who may be the one to rescue the town.
Miley Cyrus has taken on perhaps the most challenging role that any other actress has ever had the courage to tackle. Get this — she is playing a girl, who in turn is playing another girl. But the one girl won't acknowledge that she is the other girl. It may take a minute or two to wrap your head around it. Miley can sing, she can dance, she can pose for inappropriate photos, but most of all, this young lady can act. This may be the most extraordinary film debut in history.
While I could go on and on about Miley Cyrus' enthralling performance, a few words must be said about the outstanding work put out by her father, the legendary Billy Ray Cyrus. Now there have been a lot of musicians who have attempted to make the leap into acting, and actors who have tried to be musicians. The results have been mixed. For every Kenny Rogers and Madonna who has pulled it off, there are those such as Billy Bob Thornton and Frank Sinatra who have fallen flat on their face. No one has ever excelled at both mediums the way Billy Ray has. He was so fantastic in this film. I truly believed that he loved and cared for Miley. That's acting folks. You can't learn that skill in some textbook — some people are just born with it. If Billy Ray does not find himself clutching a Best Supporting Actor Oscar statue next March, it will not just cause my heart to ache, it will outright break it.
