The Best of Me (FILM REVIEW)
The Best of Me
Film
Review by Kam Williams
High School Sweethearts Reunite in Adaptation of Bittersweet Best Seller
The real test of a good tearjerker
is whether or not it moves you to tears. And this movie managed to make me cry
in spite of myself.
As this film unfolded, I frequently found myself criticizing its considerable
structural flaws, from the questionable casting to the farfetched storyline to
one humdinger of a reveal. Nevertheless, as the closing credits rolled, I found
myself wiping my eyes, a sure sign that this manipulative melodrama calculated
to open the floodgates had achieved its goal.
Directed by Michael Hoffman (The Last Station), the picture is loosely
based on the Nicholas Sparks best seller of the same name published in 2011.
Sparks is the prolific author of 18 romance novels, half of which have been adapted
to the big screen, most notably Message in a Bottle and The Notebook, with a
couple more already in the works.
Set in Oriental,
North Carolina,
The Best of Me stars James Marsden and Michelle Monaghan as Dawson Cole and
Amanda Collier, former high school sweethearts who haven’t seen each in a
couple decades. Strangely, the teenage versions of the very same characters are
played in a series of intermittent flashbacks by look-un-likes Luke Bracey and
Liana Liberato.
The point
of departure is the present, where we learn that Dawson,
who never married or attended college, is employed on an oil rig off the coast
of Louisiana.
He subsequently barely survives a deepwater explosion that blows him off the
hundred-foot high platform and turns the Gulf of Mexico
into a sea of fire. Meanwhile, miserably married Amanda is living in the lap of
luxury in Baton Rouge
where she has stuck it out for 18 years with an abusive alcoholic (Sebastian
Arcelus) for the sake of their son (Ian Nelson).
Fate
brings the two back to their tiny hometown for the funeral of Tuck (Gerald
McRaney), a mutual friend with a posthumous agenda. He named them both in his
will with the hope of orchestrating a reunion of the star-crossed lovers he
considered meant for each other. Sure enough, sparks fly, but will they share
more than a one-night stand?
A syrupy, sentimental soap opera tailor-made for fans of the
Nicholas Sparks franchise.
Very Good
(3 stars)
Rated
PG-13 for sexuality, violence, brief profanity and some drug use
Running time: 117
minutes
Distributor: Relativity
Media
No comments:
Post a Comment