Another Nicholas Sparks' (The Notebook) novel adapted for the screen where there's some love, some sadness, some happiness and a dash of mystery. 'The Notebook' was such a captivating love story that it cemented Mr sparks word on romance as the only word. The many mediocre stories that followed proved otherwise. Perhaps it's in the medium and the storyteller's ability to take the novel and turn it into a successful screenplay? But 'The Last Song', where Mr Sparks flexed his screenplay talents, is without a doubt the worst of the bunch.
Neighbours, Travis and Gabby, meet as most annoying neighbours meet, in a heated engagement over noise, which quickly turns from outrage to mild intrigue to full on schoolyard-smitten.
She's a doctor to be from a wealthy family and he a vet from modest upbringings – complete with a southern accent even though neither his sister nor father shares this accent. How peculiar. Was Benjamin Walker merely flexing his craft for accents or was it that nobody wants to hear Tom Wilkinson attempt a southern accent? And then how does one make the creative decision, do we remove the southern charm or remove Tom Wilkinson? You remove neither and pretend no one will notice, which, as you can see, totally worked. Smooth transition, my foreign soul totally couldn't tell that the Parks family don't share a familial speech pattern. But major digression there.
So, the doctor to be and the wild and crazy animal doctor – I know right, a wild and crazy vet because that's so common to find – more digression.
So, they flirt over a litter of puppies and with a few smooth moves are engulfed in the intoxication of the other. Things seem to be moving on swimmingly until things stop moving along swimmingly. Mainly because it gets a little boring. Or a lot boring, depending on the type of person you are. But the boredom is there, how much you want to drink up is entirely up to you. I personally could have had fifteen per cent less and a tad more T&A but apparently there's more romance in the awkward middle than the sexy beginning.
Give or take a few captivating moments, 'The Choice' is not as moving as 'The Notebook', nor is it as sexy as "The Longest Ride" but it is nowhere near as brain-dead as "The Last Song" – take that for what its worth.
