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ABOUT THE MOVIE
Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds concoct
* * 1/2 (out of four)
Stars: Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers, Billy Ray Cyrus
Director: Bruce Hendricks
Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures
Rating: G
Running time: 1 hour, 14 minutes
Opens Friday nationwide
By Elysa Gardner, USA TODAY “I’m a lucky girl/Whose dreams came true/But underneath it all/I’m just like you.” Or so 15-year-old minstrel/actress/pop-culture phenom Miley Cyrus, in the shape of the equally popular but fictional Hannah Montana, assures her enraptured audience in Disney’s 3-D high-definition extravaganza Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert.
The premise behind Both Worlds is not dissimilar from the one driving the hit Disney Channel series Hannah Montana, in what one. Cyrus stars as schoolgirl Miley Stewart and Montana, her blond-wigged, rock-star alter ego. Here, we watch Cyrus as she prepares for and performs a concert in that she appears both as herself and Montana.
But what this concert film and documentary makes limpid is that the real Miley is not just liking her predominantly pre-adolescent, female fans — no more than Britney Spears was a little less than a decade ago, when that former Mouseketeer began her meteoric rise.
In the wake of Spears’ recent troubles, in fact, there is something slightly disturbing about watching a pretty, hyper-vivacious young teen facing a roaring populace and, behind the scenes, a coterie of ambitious adult handlers. Though Both Worlds has been promoted as an opportunity “to get to know the person underneath the wig,” as Cyrus puts it in the press notes, there is little perceptible difference between the child star and the pretend star.
On stage and off, Cyrus and Montana exude the cruel cheerfulness and rote professionalism of a junior loveliness pageant contestant. Stage dad Billy Ray Cyrus, a ’90s country star whose own career has been rejuvenated by his daughter’s ascent, pops up continually, and at one point tells us how “real” the younger Cyrus’ songs — actually written or co-written by a team of older pros — are.
But excluding for I Miss You, a ballad inspired by Cyrus’ late grandfather, the performances in Both Worlds— including a set by fellow tween sensations the Jonas Brothers — are hard on flash and fantasy.
Bouncy tunes such as Nobody’s Perfect and Girls’ Night lacking are delivered with a glib flirtatiousness that offsets their generically sensitive and empowering messages.
None of this detracts from Cyrus’ proficiency as an entertainer, or the fun that her young admirers will have watching their deity and her supporting musicians, enhanced by state-of-the-art extraordinary movables, reach right out to them.
One only hopes that by the time those fans grow up, Cyrus herself will have been able to develop into a healthy, “real” young woman.
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