The Best of Me

I was doing good boyfriend duty when my lovely significant other told me she wanted to see a romance. I knew there was another Nicholas Sparks adaptation in theaters, and she loved The Notebook, so I bit the bullet and we went to The Best of Me, and I'm glad to report that it wasn't terrible. It wasn't much more than a TV movie, but I wasn't rolling my eyes or tempted to throw popcorn at the screen. And it made my girlfriend cry.

In a typical Sparks situation, we have separated lovers, played at two different times by two different sets of actors. This has its built-in problems (it did in The Notebook, too--who would imagine Ryan Gosling would age into James Garner?) This time we have a teenage boy (Luke Bracey, looking a lot like Heath Ledger), the sensitive soul among a passel of violent hicks, and a rich pretty girl (Lianna Liberato) forging a romance against all odds.

They are played as adults by James Marsden and Michelle Monaghan, looking nothing like the teenagers who played them younger. Oh well. Something happened between them, and Marsden is single, working on an oil rig. Monaghan is married, but to a jerk, with a teenage son who is ready to go to college. The death of their old friend (Gerald McRaney) reunites them, and therein likes our tale.

There is nothing special about this film, and it's all fairly predictable, especially the climax, which involves a heart transplant (which seems to be completed all too easily). The actors are fine, as Bracey especially has a quality that I'm sure girls will love. For those who are susceptible to this sort of thing, it should be satisfying.

For those who aren't, like me, it wasn't the worst way to spend my afternoon.

My grade for The Best of Me: C.