Attention all Nicholas Sparks fans, you now have another movie to add to your collection. The newest addition to the long line of chick flick romances is here.
The Best of Me tells the story of Amanda Collier and Dawson Cole and (shocker) their undying love for each other. Now, I am not a fan of spoilers so I’ll try to sum up the movie without giving anything away. As with almost all Nicholas Sparks stories, these two star-crossed lovers meet when they are just in high school. They fall madly in love, kiss (in the rain), dance (under the stars), and it seems like they will live happily ever after. PLOT TWIST a few terrible and completely unforeseen things happen that throw a wrench into the entire plan. Fast-forward 20 years later when they now have completely separate lives but obviously still love each other. Sparks fly, the sexual tension is unbelievable, and they struggle to figure out how they could possibly be together again after all this time. At the risk of giving away the entire movie, I will stop there. I think you get the general idea.
As a typical chick-flick-loving female, I think I have seen every Nicholas Sparks movie has been made and I am not the least bit ashamed. Therefore, going into the theater today I was fully expecting to let out a few tears while watching the same thing I have seen over and over again. To my surprise, The Best of Me was different, but different in the sense that it was much more depressing than it’s predecessors. Granted, I am kind of a softy when it comes to movies like this, but I was genuinely tearing up for at least half of the movie. The cast did a great job and the twists in the story were pretty captivating without being super predictable. The ending was, arguably, even more sad than the ending of The Notebook. But in a good way? If that’s possible?
All in all, I would (surprisingly) recommend this movie. Grab some girls and a box of tissue and give it a whirl. If you need more convincing, James Marsden and newbie Luke Bracey are definitely easy on the eyes.