“The Best of Me,” based on the book by Nicholas Sparks, opens with an oil rig in the foreground and a view of the sun setting over the endless ocean. Within the first five minutes, the audience is pushed through an explosion at the oil rig to see protagonist Dawson Cole (James Marsden) miraculously survive in the surrounding dark waters, where he has a vision of his high school sweetheart gliding through lush green gardens shaded by trees.
The movie cuts between present day and memories of Dawson (Luke Bracey) and Amanda (Liana Liberato) falling in love in high school. The plot of the heart-tugging story follows the predictable romance recipe. The Hallmark-card sayings prompts the majority of the audience to laugh at the cheesy characters, but it is difficult to be drawn into the story further.
Throughout the movie, tacky transitions are sprinkled among beautiful shots of nature. At one point, housewife Amanda Collier (Michelle Monaghan) looks up at the stars and wishes for a better life, making the audience members roll their eyes.
This movie consists of typical romance scenes of giggly high schoolers playing in gardens, jumping off docks, and sitting on water towers thinking about their futures. Combined with feel-good music, these scenes are all too expected in a movie of this genre. Nevertheless, the nature in each scene provides pleasing visuals.
Dawson and Amanda’s paths intersect again after they experience a tragedy. They venture back to their hometown to have a stiff and uncomfortable confrontation at a lawyer’s office. The tense body language and blunt conversations effectively display the rich history shared between the two grown-ups, drawing in the audience’s curiosity.
The audience is kept interested by wondering what caused the two teenagers to separate. The flashback parts of the movie portray two teens who are so in love that it is difficult for the audience to picture them living disconnected lives.
Not only is the storyline a cliché, but the characters are too. Dawson is the social outcast as a hardworking underdog and with Amanda fulfilling the role of the popular, friendly girl, the two don’t seem to be a likely match.
While some of the characters are completely over-developed, most of the supporting roles are shallow. The abusive father is covered in black drab with various tattoos and piercings and his three “evil” sons follow his style. The lengths that the costume designer and makeup-artist went to were far beyond believable and, as a result, I could not take these characters seriously.
The entire movie is not new; the love story conforms to the usual storyline that Nicholas Sparks creates with a final spin that completely “throws off” the audience. The plot pivots in the last 15 minutes as Dawson receives shocking news from an all-too-typical phone call from his past lover.
The movie doesn’t end in the way that viewers may want it to because it breaks away from the typical happy ending. After falling in love with the couple, viewers will feel unfulfilled by the fate of the characters. However, “The Best of Me” is worth seeing if you are in the mood for a romantic movie and are ready to have your heart yanked, but be warned as it struggles to be original.
