The Lucky One

       The love story is a timeless tale that has been told forever. Well in modern storytelling, there are love stories and then there are Nicholas Sparks’ love stories. The last few years have seen a flurry of Sparks’ novels being turned into very successful films, films like “The Notebook”, “Dear John”. And “A Walk to Remember”. His newest book “The Lucky One” follows the same formula that has made his books and films so popular.

       Logan (Zac Efron) is a Marine serving one of his three tours of duty in Iraq. During a night mission, Logan and his squad are ambushed and he survives. In the morning he sees something in the rubble and goes to retrieve it, what he finds is a picture of a girl. While looking at the picture a bomb goes off where he was previously standing, killing three soldiers. While serving the rest of his tours he uses the picture as a good luck charm and at the same time is trying to find the rightful owner. When Logan arrives home, he makes it his mission to find the girl in the picture and to thank her for saving his life. His search leads him to a kennel where he finds his mystery girl Beth (Taylor Schilling) and a job as well. Beth works the kennel with her mother, Ellie (Blythe Danner), and her son, Ben (Riley Thomas Stewart), and together they live a quite life. Logan tries to tell Beth what brings him to her but has trouble finding the right words. As Beth and Logan get closer, Beth’s ex, Keith (Jay R. Ferguson), tries his best to come between them. Sometimes though, you just can’t stop what is meant to happen.

     The story takes its time developing, which goes well with Logan being a man of few words. It’s not a bad thing because it fits well and adds to the film and never makes the film feel like it drags. Efron and Schilling are both great and all of the actors are good in their roles. Will Fetters (Remember me) does a good job of adapting Starks’s novel. The film does not have a lot of dialogue, but instead believes less is more. Scott Hicks (Shine) plays it smart and lets the source material and his actors do all the work. Does romance really happen like this, or do things like this only happen in the movies? The good thing is while you watch “The Lucky One” you won’t really care, because for two hours it is  real.

 Brian Taylor