The Choice

I found the journey delightful. And let's be fair, it isn't easy choosing between Superman and Travis and one of several questions raised is whether the latter's southern charm and wit will win through in the end. And of course the journey's not going to be a smooth one and it is advisable to have plenty of paper tissues handy for the last 20 minutes or so. While the leads were charming, the supporting cast were also excellent. In all, a lovely film that is perfect for a romantic occasion.

"Every path you take leads to another choice. Some choices change everything." Travis (Walker) is a confirmed bachelor who loves being single and doing what he wants. When his new neighbor Gabby (Palmer) shows up at his house everything in him changes. Now Travis will stop at nothing to be with her. After all his pursuits he finally wins her over, but when the unthinkable happens Travis must once again make a choice that will affect both of their lives forever. Going in to this I was not excited at all. I know 99% of women love the Nicholas Sparks movies, but for me they are just too ridiculous. In the Notebook the main guy builds the woman he is obsessed with a house. In The Lucky One within a week of meeting the girl he fixes her car, boat and teaches her son to play baseball. It is hard for me to get past the perfect man image that is portrayed and they really lose me. Again, being a guy I am not the target audience for these movies. All that said this was, to me, the best of all the movies made from his books. The characters were actually real and believable. There were no over the top scenes and I was actually into this movie more than I expected. Without ruining anything, the ending did get over the top cheesy for me and lost me a little, but since this is a chick flick that is to be expected. Overall, it could have been because of my expectations but this was not a bad movie at all and is a date night movie women will love and men will be able to watch without too much pain. I surprisingly, extremely surprisingly, give this an A-.

In the opening scenes of this film we see Travis (Walker) mulling over an unknown choice he has to make, en route to hospital, flowers in hand. Most of the film depicts the events leading up to this point.

Now, I stumbled on this film by idly setting it to record on a PVR (without knowing the slightest thing about it) and then watching it later on. To be honest when I usually do this, it is about 50:50 whether I bother to watch it at all; quite a few films get deleted without ever being seen all the way through; this percentage goes right up if it is what might be termed a 'chick flick' of merely average quality. However in this case, right from the start, I thought this was a well-crafted film, beautifully photographed and with a good soundtrack. I won't say I was hooked but I was sufficiently intrigued to watch it all the way through and to my surprise I was rather moved by it.

So my advice is that you should start watching this film with no prior knowledge and no expectations whatsoever; however if you are reading this it may already be too late, you may have already been told the main plot points, that the movie is terribly formulaic, yada yada yada. Too bad; watching a film is all about suspension of disbelief; this film is no different to most in that respect, and I'd argue that this one is best approached with almost no prior knowledge or expectations of any kind.

Maybe one or two expectations are OK; that of the North Carolina coastline being beautifully photographed as a backdrop to this film, and a nice soundtrack, not too much in your face. All movies paint a certain, usually somewhat unrealistic, view of reality, and this film is no exception; for example I don't think the coastline is ever filmed at low tide, when it is somewhat less, er, photogenic. The whole film is arguably similarly rendered, which hardly unusual and is the storyteller's prerogative, even though some folk might object to it.

Maybe if you are a chap who wants a movie to settle down and watch one evening in the company of a significant other, this would be a good choice; with too much prior knowledge (and a cynical head on) it would be easy to dismiss it as formulaic and schmaltzy, but if you are in the right mood this is a heartwarming, life-affirming story, nicely told. If I'd read half the reviews on here beforehand I probably wouldn't have bothered to watch this film at all, but I didn't and I judged it on its own merits, and to my great surprise it gets seven out of ten from me.

I'll save you some time. The lead female protagonist has zero redeeming qualities (no reflection on the actor - she did a great job of portraying a dreadful character). She is an objectively terrible person and I kept looking for a reason the male lead was into her apart from the fact that she's pretty. She cheats, leads people on, verbally abuses people, doesn't own up when she's in the wrong, rebukes, and criticizes, and we're supposed to be rooting for this girl? Seriously, why does the male lead like her so much? If a character is going to be that flawed, she has to be likable to redeem herself to the viewer. In a cliché Hollywood trope, the screenwriter was in far too much of a hurry to fling the two characters together to actually make the woman likable. (And yes, I have read the book. She has redeeming qualities in the book.)

Greetings again from the darkness. When the word formulaic is used to describe a movie or book, it's typically meant as a disparagement. We must admit, however, that if the formula works, it only makes sense (and dollars) to stick with it. Most Hollywood blockbuster franchises are built around a basic formula – superheroes, romantic-comedies, alien invasions, etc. Author Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook) has taken his tragic-romance novel formula and turned it into big screen gold. This is the eleventh film developed from his writing, and it's likely to be another successful entry into the Sparks canon.

Director Ross Katz (Adult Beginners, 2015) is at the helm of the screenplay by Bryan Sipe (upcoming Demolition) and many of the familiar Sparks features are present. First off, the key players are all exceedingly attractive – Ralph Lauren model attractive. Secondly, there is a will they/won't they romance that will of course happen and then may fall apart, but probably won't. And third, some type of tragedy will occur that will kick off a stream of tears from a certain segment of the audience.

This one begins with a narrator's humble-brag promising to tell us the "secret of life". That narrator is Travis, played with an over-flowing abundance of southern charm by Benjamin Walker (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, 2012). His main vices are a tendency to use "damn" to the point of overkill in most every conversation, and his natural ability to attract the ladies. Oh, and he has a rescue dog and a lake house and he is a veterinarian. See, in the Sparks universe, everyone is beautiful and successful. Travis has his eye on his new neighbor, who is pretending to be annoyed but mostly admits to playing a game of hard-to-get. This is Gabby (Teresa Palmer, Warm Bodies 2013), and she is beautiful and a doctor-to-be. Gabby's current boyfriend is, of course, a handsome doctor. Ryan is played by Tom Welling (a bit heftier than his days as Clark Kent/Superman in "Smallville").

The beautiful Maggie Grace (Taken) plays Travis' sister, and Alexandra Daddario (San Andreas) plays Monica … she is not only beautiful, but she is also the nicest, most understanding and supportive "other" woman ever seen on screen. Tom Wilkinson plays Travis' veterinarian dad, and Sharon Blackwood plays the wise-cracking and match-making assistant Cora. If that's not enough beauty and success for you, we also get "puppies in a basket"! Come for the chuckles and tears … just not twists or surprises. Fans of this genre will get exactly what they want. It's a romantic fantasy set in the somewhat realistic world of doctors, veterinarians, and equestrians. The faces are perfect. The dialogue is snappy without being demanding (even in the God discussion). Many scenes feature loyal dogs, or a serene lake, or the "moon and stars". Even the difficult parts of life – raising kids, health issues, etc – are given the "yada, yada, yada" treatment. While Travis claims over and over that Gabby "bothers him", it's the kind of bother that creates a cryfest in the theatre … whether things go right or wrong. It's also the reason that all eleven Sparks films feature a couple of lovers on the poster. Just remember, if that formula works ….