Year 17, Day 33 - 2/2/25 - Movie #4,933
BEFORE: OK, Day 2 of the February Romance chain, now we're getting somewhere, with a film based on a Nicholas Sparks novel. Sparks is like the Stephen King of romance books, by that I mean he's very prolific and well-respected, plus he's sold a TON of books over the year, maybe a few tons. Last year I watched "A Walk to Remember" and "The Last Song", those are two of his stories, and over the years I've also watched "The Notebook", "Nights in Rodanthe", and "Message in a Bottle", that last one was back before I even started blogging. At this point I should probably try to get to them all, that's been my approach with horror stories based on Stephen King novels, like it's not even a question, just put it on the list and try to link to it. I'm going to get to two more this year, today's film and tomorrow's, and I've put "The Best of Me" on my list, and well, maybe next year. I'll think about "The Longest Ride" because I do like to be a completist on things like this. Cobie Smulders carries over from "Alright Now".
Tomorrow is February 3 already, and once we hit the Super Bowl and Valentine's Day, time's going to fly and St. Patrick's Day and spring will be here before you know it. But before all that, here's the TCM 31 Days of Oscar line-up for tomorrow:
THE PLOT: A young woman with a mysterious past lands in Southport, North Carolina, where her bond with a widower forces her to confront the dark secret that haunts her.
AFTER: See, this is what you come to a Nicholas Sparks love story for - somebody's in TROUBLE, it's not just a meet-cute. Like, if Katie took the bus from Boston to Atlanta and decided to get off in North Carolina and start her new life because it's a beautiful town, and the people are very friendly and accepting and there's this CUTE guy who sold her coffee at the general store, that would be one thing, fine for a Hallmark or Lifetime movie, they could fill up a two-hour block with that story plus commercials. But Katie's on the RUN from the Boston P.D., there's a cop who's very determined to find out where she's headed, after he lost track of which bus she was getting on. He stopped a lot of them, but not the right one. OK, so there's a back-story, like what crime did she commit and is she going to be able to hide out in Southport, provided she never gets a phone installed and pays for her utilities in cash and doesn't open a bank account?
The hunky guy, Alex, has two young kids and her helpful boss points out that his wife passed away from cancer last year, but he's bounding back. OK, second story, dead wife, in recovery, this part practically writes itself, they're not on the same page at first because he's hurting and she's hiding out, neither one wants to get too close to the other, but come on, it's like some powerful love magnetism juju going on here, or he's the magnet and she's the iron filings, this is going to happen if she takes the job at the cafe next door to his store. AND she's already friends with his daughter, so there's not that awkward getting-to-know-you period between her and the kids, though Alex's son is at that weird age, so he might take a little longer. Plus the kids both miss their MOM, still, jeezus. Proceed with caution, but that doesn't mean don't proceed at all.
Alex has to decide if he's willing to take Katie to any of the same places he went with his wife, and finally he feels that's OK - but he and one of the local cops are in charge of putting together the annual July 4 fireworks show, the only thing that could get in the way of his relationship with Katie is seeing her wanted poster in the police station when he's hanging out with his cop buddy. So guess what...
Katie comes clean, but it's not what he thinks - the cop put out an APB for her, listing her as being charged with murder, and the film throws a red herring or two here for us, because she has a flashback of holding a knife in that house where the crime occurred - but surely there must be some more rational explanation for what took place that night. And there is, and it's a bit far-fetched, but it does make sense in the rear-view. Katie had an abusive husband, and he's a cop, and after she left him he made it his mission to find her, and bring her back, or make sure nobody else can have her, whichever. The only thing holding him back is NOT knowing where she got off the bus, somewhere between Boston and Atlanta.
So while Katie's ex harasses the neighbor who helped Katie escape, Katie and Alex do manage to talk this out and figure out a way forward, Alex vows to protect her, no matter what, unless he's distracted by something loud and colorful at the moment. And they can go back to having their day-trips to the beach or fishing trips in the canoe, as long as he can convince her to not hop back on the bus for another little city to hide out in. Well, they've got some time before the parallel storylines converge, anyway.
I'd score this one higher if the story didn't pull a fast one near the ending, I don't want to say here what it is because it's a spoiler, but if I mentioned two other specific movies that used a similar twist, well, then you'd know exactly what kind of shenanigans are taking place here. It's been done before, and done better in those other movies, and that sort of thing has no place in a romance movie, if you ask me. Then again, a movie I'm planning to watch in about a week kind of pulls the same trick, but it's more honest and open about it from the beginning, I think. I will say no more about it, but I still don't approve of it from a narrative standpoint. There should have been a better way of getting this information across, that's all.
NITPICK POINT: The Boston cop asks the ticket clerk at the bus station where someone could go from Atlanta. Dude, EVERYwhere! Does he not know how buses work? How stupid is this question? Bus terminals, airports, train stations, they're all connected, man! You can go from any station to any other station if you've got enough time and enough money!
Well, it turns out that there are really 11 movies made from Nicholas Sparks novels, and I'm not as far ahead as I thought I was. After tomorrow I will have seen seven of them, so I've got to get cracking on the other four one of these Februarys. Let me work on getting to "The Longest Ride" and "The Best of Me" next time around, and then I'll think about the last two.
Directed by: Lasse Hallstrom (director of "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen")
Also starring Julianne Hough (last seen in "Burlesque"), Josh Duhamel (last seen in "Bandit"), David Lyons (last seen in "Eat Pray Love"), Mimi Kirkland, Noah Lomax, Irene Ziegler (last seen in "Nights in Rodanthe"), Robin Mullins (last seen in "Cold Mountain"), Red West (last seen in "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer"), Juan Carlos Piedrahita (last seen in "CBGB"), Cullen Moss (last seen in "Assassination Nation"), Mike Pniewski (last seen in "Reptile"), Jon Kohler (last seen in "Freejack"), Tim Parati (last seen in "The Program"), Giulia Pagano, Jasper Grey (last seen in "Movie 43"), Tora Hallström, Wendy Wilmot, Ric Reitz (last seen in "Willy's Wonderland"), Nick Basta (last seen in "Harriet"), Mary DeFlavio, James Nalitz, Jan Hartsell (last seen in "Are You Here"), Martin Coleman Bowen, Cameron Penrose, Ora Ogden, Jody Harker, Daniel Cochran Donovan, Jerad Swain, Ryan T. Boldt, Dyer Scott Lumpkin, George Dawe, Charles Laughon
RATING: 6 out of 10 paint color samples
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