Susan Granger’s review of “Hannah Montana: The Movie” (Walt Disney)
Movies should be reviewed with their intended audience in mind so, if you’re old enough to drive yourself to the theater, this is not for you. But if you have a ‘tween girl living in your household, for her, it’s a must-see.
Based on the hit Disney Channel show, Hannah Montana is the pop-star alter-ego of Miley Stewart (Miley Cyrus). So the story opens with Miley trying to get into Hannah’s concert with her best-friend Lilly (Emily Osment). Because no one knows that Miley’s really Hannah, the girls have to sneak backstage where Miley’s dad, Robby Rae (Billy Ray Cyrus, her real-life father), is teed off at their tardiness. Then – voila! – with a blonde wig, sequins, spangles and stilettos – mild-mannered Miley turns into Hannah, the rock chick.
The dramatic dilemma that the ‘celebrified’ Miley/Hannah faces is her lack of time for friends and family. So in a typical “Father Knows Best” maneuver, Robby Rae totes his daughter ‘down home,’ back to Crowley’s Corners, Tennessee, for a much-needed reality check and “Hannah detox” on her grandma’s (Margo Martindale) farm. Coincidentally, there happens to be this cute cowboy chum, Travis (Lucas Till), and a local lovely, Lorelei (Melora Hardin), who catches the widower Robby Rae’s eye. But villains abound, too, exemplified by a nosy British tabloid reporter (Peter Gunn) and a greedy developer (Barry Bostwick), who threatens to turn a bucolic meadow into a shopping mall. (Obviously, this was filmed before last year’s real estate collapse.)
Written by Dan Berendsen (“Cheetah Girls: One World”) and directed by Peter Chelsom (“Hear My Song”), it’s formulaic and predictable in its likeable folksiness, complete with a hot/mild sauce switch and a climactic identity crisis, reminiscent of “Home Sweet Alabama.” Yet the musical numbers are diverting, particularly the “Hoedown Throwdown,” and an interlude with Taylor Swift.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Hannah Montana: The Movie” is a charming diversion for girls, ages 6-14, but about a 6 for the rest of us. And expect Miley-mania to continue with the upcoming publication of Cyrus’s 16 year-old’s version of “memoirs.”
