'The Best of Me' Lacks Substance

Cue kissing in the rain. Cue a misunderstood boy with a troubled past. Cue star-crossed lovers. Cue rekindling long-lost love. And cue just about any other cliché that you have seen in every other formulaic Nicholas Sparks book-turned-film.

"The Best of Me" is the latest adaptation of a Sparks book, following eight predecessors. "The Best of Me" centers on Dawson Cole (James Marsden) and Amanda Collier (Michelle Monaghan), who are high school sweethearts brought back together after 20 years. Dawson works on oil rigs while Amanda is a stay-at-home mom with an alcoholic husband. Their paths cross once again when they are both summoned to the will-reading of a man named Tuck (Gerald McRaney), who raised Dawson after he ran away from his abusive father (Sean Bridgers). Through Tuck's last effort to reunite these two long-lost lovers, the two are instructed to spread Tuck's ashes over his backwater estate in Vandemere, Louisiana.

In a series of flashbacks, the film shows the two titular characters in high school where they fall in love, with Dawson played by Luke Bracey and Amanda played by Liana Liberato. In fact, both of the younger leads are terribly miscast, with neither looking very much like their older counterparts. In particular, it is downright distracting how little Bracey resembles Marsden. Even more so, Bracey would struggle to pass for 21, let alone 18.

Their forbidden love burns strong despite the fact that they are worlds apart. Spunky Amanda is planning on going to Tulane and comes from a wealthy southern family. Dawson's drug-peddling and abusive father makes college an impossible dream for him. However, their love blossoms, and quintessentially involves a scene of the two kissing in the rain that seemingly every Nicholas Sparks tearjerker requires. The two look to be destined for each other despite a litany of ridiculous tragedies. In the end, a devastating accident tears the two apart until fate reunites them 20 years later to bid farewell to Tuck. The sparks of desire and love still burn strong between these two, and they face the question of whether they can move on from their past scars.

Directed by Michael Hoffman ("One Fine Day"), "The Best of Me" is exactly what you would expect. It is the kind of movie where the hunky hero bares his soul and pledges his undying love and the beautiful damsel responds with a tear in her eye: "You want me to fall back in love with you? How can I do that if I never stopped?" It is this, no more, no less. Unsurprisingly, Tuck's estate has a garden which allows for plenty of opportunities for the predominantly female audience to see the chiseled abs of Marsden and Bracey.

The blatantly formulaic third act borders on being comical with how terribly predictable it is at every turn. Whether it be terminal illness, imprisonment, murder, playful swimming in the bayou, or spontaneous slow dancing, "The Best of Me" provides nearly everything the weepy romantic genre offers that Nicholas Sparks has become so very well known for.

With a predominantly '90s soundtrack that attempts to be nostalgic but instead settles for forgettable, nothing feels original about this film, which includes the script by Will Fetters and J. Mills Goodloe. The screenwriters allow themselves to fall prey to the source material of Nicholas Sparks, adding nothing more. They simply spew out the dialogue from the book without taking any risks or liberties. Similarly, while the four main actors do attempt to bring forth earnest performances for the couple of Dawson and Amanda, they are not enough to save the movie from the source material that they have to work with.

With an ending that could be seen coming from a mile away, the movie feels like episodes of "Grey's Anatomy," "CSI," and "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" packed into one melodramatic movie that falls terribly short. The film adds nothing to the romantic genre, while simply being a part of the catalogue of melodramatic and emotionally manipulative movies that are far too common nowadays.

—Contributing writer Conor G. Bent can be reached at cbent@college.harvard.edu.