Movie Reviews

Movie Reviews: Hannah Montana: The Movie

In the second big-screen appearance for sitcom pop-star Hannah Montana (Miley Cyrus) following last year's Best of Both Worlds Concert movie, the Disney Channel chanteuse gets back to where she once belonged.

The gimmick of the TV show (and this movie) is that nobody knows Hannah Montana the singing sensation and Miley Stewart the typical teen are the same person. Just as people in Superman's world can't figure out that the man of steel is Clark Kent minus the glasses, no one in Hannah's universe can tell that the tween idol is brunette Miley in a wild blond wig.

In her Hannah guise, the over-indulged "most popular teenager in the world" is the kind of gal who gets into a Rodeo Drive catfight with model Tyra Banks over a pair of shoes. Dad Robby Ray (Miley's real life father Billy Ray Cyrus) decides her priorities need rearranging after she steals the spotlight at a Sweet Sixteen party from her BFF Lilly (Emily Osment) by showing up as attention-grabbing Hannah instead of as just-folks Miley. Okay, she has an excuse: She wants to keep an obnoxious tabloid reporter from learning Hannah's secret. But still.

Tricked into returning to her hokily wholesome Tennessee hometown, Miley pouts at first about being forced to endure two wigless weeks in "Hannah detox." She soon comes to appreciate life in the slow lane, though, especially after reconnecting with a childhood friend turned horse-riding hottie (Lucas Till). Her worlds collide when she finds herself obligated to perform a local benefit concert as Hannah while trying to keep her double life a secret from her new boyfriend and similarly unaware neighbors.

Miley Cyrus is bright and sunny as Miley/Hannah, with a big voice that's perfectly suited for the movie's radio-friendly country-pop confections. Dragged onstage as Miley, not Hannah, for an open-mike night, Cyrus breaks format a little by telling the crowd she "wants to add a little hip-hop to this hoedown," then leading an electric-slidish production number. Elfin-eyed country superstar Taylor Swift puts in a brief cameo performing a song as herself, and Billy Ray duets with his daughter on a sweetly sentimental ballad.

The rural setting is more Disneyland than down-home, and the characters are more central casting than southern-fried, but it's not as if anyone buying a ticket will be disappointed this isn't Deliverance. With nothing beyond a kiss that's even vaguely sexually suggestive, this sugary G-rated treat is safely double-entendre free for tweens and younger.

—James Dawson
04.09.09