Director: Michael Hoffman
Writers: J. Mills Goodloe, Will Fetters, Michael Hoffman
Cast: Michelle Monaghan, James Marsden, Luke Bracey, Liana Liberato
Studio: Relativity
“The Best of Me” is a tale of two timelines. Two people find love when a close friend makes them the executors of his estate. After 20 years, the two reunited and try to rekindle that love that they had in 1993. They love the Cowboy Junkies’ cover of “Sweet Jane” and they share gelato out among the hicks. Unfortunately, tragedy strikes and they break apart. But, they now reunite as the typical Sparks heroine is losing her modern-day relationship. Would you believe that her husband wants to maintain his work ethic and takes business calls?
Nicholas Sparks cinematic adaptations rarely get it right, but that’s not to say that the source material is great. If anything, it’s wank bank material for lonely housewives, divorcees and the weird lady at work that tells you about her cats. It’s a fantasy that forces you to accept the dumbest of circumstances for anything to work. The smallest of ploys is major material and everyone is trying to stop the central heroine from finding love. Honestly, I don’t see why anyone would care what such a boring woman does on her own time.
Maybe I’m not the target audience. But, I enjoyed “The Notebook” and “Dear John” for an incredibly different reasons. That being said, Sparks has created a cottage industry of crap adaptations that just stuff cineplexes about once or twice a year. Did you see “Safe Haven”? I keep that film around in the same way that some people show “Mac and Me” at parties. A flesh colored alien dancing around at a McDonalds is far more believable than the relationships presented in this film. I already know that I have a small contingent of readers that will find me this weekend to complain in person. All I have to say is watch better movies and demand better fiction.
RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW!