The Choice

I'm about half way on the Nicholas Sparks Love – Hate scale. I feel roughly the same when it comes to all of these movies. I sit there, counting down the clichés and thinking about how it's the same god damn thing, but I'm not tearing my eyes out. I'm not going to attack people for liking it, demand my money back after seeing it or try to call Nicholas Sparks mean names. I mean hell, he's made eleven movies out of this gig, I guess he's doing something right. And yes The Choice feels the same, and it's not really anything new.

Nicholas Sparks based movies tend to not be too strongly centred around the actual story, but the characters. The world doesn't change around them, and the events effect nobody but the protagonists, but the relationship is why people bother in the first place. The Choice is no different and this is no surprise.

The movie tells the story of a girl who moves in next door to a guy, they annoy each other and initially sort-of dislike each other, then time goes on and eventually end up loving each other… Then some other stuff happens. Look the actual story is nothing new. Have you seen Safe Haven? The Last Song? Countless other movies in this genre? Then you've seen this. The difference in these movies are the actual characters, however trivial or gimmicky these differences may be.

Travis is a formulaic easy going guy with a southern accent and a cowboy attitude, he is loud and obnoxious and annoys the girl next door; Gabby, she's an intelligent woman who's interning to be a doctor… with some obligatory drama added in, these characters interact and we see their relationship grow throughout the film. This is used as an obligatory comparison between the two protagonists, as he's introduced partying and listening to rock and roll. There are also some side characters in the film who are simply not people in any sense of the word. They play along as 'Friend Number 1,' 'Friend number 2,' and 'friend 1's wife' and so on. They also seem have all of the free time in the world, can ditch their children whenever it's convenient and look like they're auditioning to advertise picnics on the cover of some magazine as they all smile for eternity and are nothing but absolutely perfect at having fun and partying. I'll keep my complaints here limited, as this isn't too big of a deal considering that they are side characters. Some other side characters with more depth however appear in the film too; Gabby's boyfriend from the beginning of the film Ryan is a doctor whose parents own the hospital where she and he work. (They all have relationships that are super complicated to explain in these movies!) He's predictably played off as some 'Villain' character even though he actually doesn't do anything wrong… The morals regarding this part of the story I personally find to be pretty messy… If anything, Gabby is the villain… Travis' family including his father and sister are also present. His sister doesn't really have a story of her own but acts as a catalyst for dialogue. His father has a sad and cute little story of his own thrown in for good measure as well.

The movie uses many open shots of lakes, beaches, stars and so on to romanticize everything in the film from something as prominent as the protagonists' relationship to even minor details. Everything looks perfect. This movie is like an advertisement. It glorifies its' settings, praises its' characters and unrealistically portrays a life of… perfectness. It's an advertisement. You want to have a relationship like this, you want to live in a place like this and you want to be as happy as all of the perfect people in the movie. Anything that does go wrong is soon shown as a good thing because it showed how much characters loved each other or it helped in some way that wasn't obvious at first.

The dialogue is cheesy, but the actors are competent enough and do sell the emotion. Especially on Benjamin Walker's part playing Travis, I admit he turned out to be pretty likable even after being initially unlikable. I even felt a little for him in the final act. Whether they are phoning it in or not, I believe that the actors do a good job here. Nothing ground-breaking in terms of film acting but nothing illusion breaking either.

The writing does feel is lazy, as we fall back into elements taken straight out of the ten previous installments of this 'franchise.' It's also extremely unbalanced. There is a part in the film where I could have sworn that could have been the ending and it would have been fine… But it just kept going… But if you just sit back and watch, it's a cute little film to see on (or around) valentine's day.

Being predictable, full of exaggerated emotion and attempting to be as romantic as can possible be, The Choice is a hit or miss. See it or not. If you don't see it you're certainly not missing out too much, but if you want to see it, then by all means see it and you'll get what you expect. It's better than Safe Haven and not as good as The Notebook. But honestly that's just splitting hairs. You've seen this before, but if it's your type of film, you'll probably enjoy it. Over all, I personally found the story to be somewhat lacking in originality, but the characters to be somewhat likable and the third act to be somewhat emotional despite being predictable and rushed. This movie's no masterpiece, but it's not offensive either. It's fine. And hey! This one has dogs! I like dogs! 5/10

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 ….

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.)

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.

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.