The Lucky One

We haven't been to the movies for a while. There isn't a lot out there right now because it's pre-season before the big summer blockbusters. I do look forward to those, but in the meantime we wanted to see something with the potential to be good. For this, we chose The Lucky One.

This movie is based on another Nicholas Sparks book. I loved reading "The Notebook" and "A Walk to Remember"  and even liked "Message in a Bottle." I have enjoyed many of the movies based on his books - my favorite has been The Notebook. The problem with his stories as well as the key to their success is that they are formulaic. This is my problem with Nicholas Sparks...someone ALWAYS dies at the end of the story. It's not always one of the love interests, but SOMEONE dies. Now when I watch one of his stories, I spend most of the movie wondering who it's going to be...

This brings me to The Lucky One. Basically, it's a respectable movie. It was ok, but didn't move me to tears. It's ok as a love story. What I thought about most as I watched was that Zac Efron is too beautiful for his own good. This young actor is going to have difficulty being taken seriously because he is just too ridiculously good looking. If I was a young actress, I wouldn't want to be paired with him. I would be afraid of the comparisons. In this movie, the young actress, Taylor Schilling did fine.

So although Ron liked the movie, I will have to tell you that you don't have to rush out to see it. The story is contemporary in that the lead character is a marine with possible post traumatic stress disorder after serving in Iraq for three tours of duty. Except for Zac Efron's extraordinary good looks, there really isn't anything special or different about this love story. Yes, someone dies in this movie, but I won't give it away. As expensive as it is to go to the movies these days, it's definitely worth waiting for it to come out on DVD.