Even by the standards of The Notebook author Nicholas Sparks, his 2011 novel The Best of Me employs an extremely simple setup. Twenty-one years after they last saw each other, high-school sweethearts Amanda and Dawson meet again, and an old glow is rekindled. Perhaps because of the simplicity and universality of this situation, Sparks has added a cornucopia of insane plot developments: an accidental death, an organ transplant, surprise instructions in a will, and a family of drug-baking hillbillies who make the Deliverance crew look unassuming.
Along with the deep-fried melodrama, there’s a dicey storytelling thing going. Amanda and Dawson spend part of the story as adults, the other part as teenagers, so the movie adaptation will flip back and forth between two sets of actors—a tough structural challenge even when the actors look like each other, which in this movie they don’t. Michelle Monaghan and Liana Liberato split time as the high-bred Amanda, and James Marsden and Luke Bracey play dirt-poor Dawson. After surviving an oil-rig accident that convinces him he’s been spared for a reason—and this being a Nicholas Sparks story, you better believe there’s a reason—Dawson is called back to his Southern hometown for a bequest from a recently deceased mentor (Gerald McRaney). This is how he gets in the proximity of Amanda again, who’s now married and a mom. But Sparks is no amateur at this; Amanda’s husband is an alcoholic and a golf nut, so the alert viewer will sense a possible loophole for a little shared intimacy between Amanda and Dawson when they head out to a weekend cabin to spread their dead friend’s ashes.
The Best of Me is directed by Michael Hoffman (The Last Station), a filmmaker usually inclined to braininess and sophisticated comedy. He might be the reason the movie has some legit exchanges between Monaghan and Marsden, who do seem like grown-ups at certain moments. Monaghan (lately seen in True Detective) has a strong instinct for truthfulness, which probably explains why Hollywood doesn’t know what to do with her. But all this effort is in service to a truly ludicrous scenario that gets more face-slappingly incredible as it goes on. Nicholas Sparks is 48 years old and has published 18 books since 1996. This isn’t going to end anytime soon. Opens Fri., Oct. 17 at Sundance Cinemas and other theaters. Rated PG-13. 118 minutes.
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