So I saw my first Nicholas Sparks movie and … I didn’t hate it? Maybe the two glasses of wine beforehand affected my judgment, as I can hardly defend the film from an “objective” perspective. It’s riddled with problems, including:
- The casting of Luke Bracey as the teenage version of James Marsden; not only does he look closer to forty than eighteen, he couldn’t look more different to Marsden. I’m assuming he was cast entirely for the scene where he gardens shirtless.
- A cornucopia of romantic clichés; dances in the (studio-perfect) moonlight, convenient rose bushes … a list too long to continue.
- Its “everything-happens-for-a-reason” narrative (hinted at with the early appearance of Hawking’s The Grand Design), where the potential to examine the calcification of disadvantage across the film’s two timelines – where natural talent is swallowed up by poverty and crime – is wasted due to the script’s insistence on coincidence and convention.
Despite all this, it wasn’t the painful experience I’d expected. I suspect I’m secretly a sucker for the kind of undisguised, oversized emotion that defines these sappy melodramas. If I could tolerate – and intermittently enjoy – The Best of Me, perhaps I should finally get around to watching The Notebook…
Another Sparks adaptation that’s pretty awful. Then again, can’t say I’m all that surprised. Good review.
Cheers
Maybe wine is the key to crap films?!
It’s a solid hypothesis. Deserves to be thoroughly tested.
LOL! Well, at least you didn’t hate it. I’m personally not a huge fan of The Notebook, I’d much rather go and sit through A Walk to Remember, but thats me. I fully acknowledge these Nicholas Sparks are all over dramatized and cliche romance, so very formulaic but somehow, I don’t quite hate any of them with the exception of The Last Song and Dear John that I really wouldn’t want to rewatch
So, A Walk to Remember is the best of the bunch, then?
To me it is. Most probably would say The Notebook is. And another blogger thinks Safe Haven is. So it all depends what type of love story you like, I guess. A Walk to Remember is cute and bittersweet.