The Lucky One on DVD

Lately, Nicholas Sparks book-to-movie adaptations have been striking out with me, so I wasn't too eager to see The Lucky One. But it kept crossing my radar, and since there's been little else out that I really want to see, I rented it. I was sort of pleasantly surprised; at least it was better than average.

The movie stars Zac Efron as a soldier whose life is literally saved by the discovery of another man's discarded picture. Logan returns from war an emotionally wounded man. To avoid hurting his sister's family and to try to offer thanks to the woman in the photo, he sets off walking across the country to Louisiana. He means to just say "thank you," but is that enough? Unable to find the words or even explain himself, he ends up with a job at Beth's dog kennel. Beth (Taylor Schilling) is still struggling from the loss of her brother in the war, and raising a kid as a single mom isn't easy, especially when  her former husband Keith, also the town sheriff, is making life more difficult. Quiet Logan does everything he can to help, and eventually he and Beth fall in love. But Logan can't keep ignoring the real reason he entered Beth's life. And Keith will do anything to get him out of it.

It's an interesting story, probably even better in the book. And neither of the two main characters dies in the end! (Sparks seems to like his romances to be partly tragedies, too.) There's still a lot of angst and true-to-life emotional trauma, but the romance is fairly solid.

I was impressed with Zac Efron, even though his character is stoic and seems to hardly require acting. Knowing what Efron is capable of (High School Musical), seeing him in this very different role was remarkable. He obviously has a pretty broad acting range. It can't be easy to pull off stoic and still make your character likeable and reachable; there's a lot of internal acting there.

I did say the romance is good, but unfortunately, there is a sexual aspect to it, shown in more detail (though nothing graphic; it's rated PG-13) than it needs to be. I would have preferred it not to exist, but it is Nicholas Sparks. Why does "good romance" automatically come with sex these days? We women like our Pride and Prejudice just fine. (Although, Fifty Shades of Grey seems to be the new thing. I wonder, do some of the same women like both? Can't they see the difference?)

Besides the sexual immorality, I had one other beef with the movie toward the end. (SPOILER ALERT) Do you know what deus ex machina means? It's a plot device where a god, or the equivalent, comes out of nowhere to save the day. Basically, it's a cop-out. Characters don't have to make the hard decisions. They are miraculously saved. That happens with Keith. He is nicely ejected from the picture so that Logan and Beth and her son can become a family. No mention is made of the effects this might have on the kid, who admires his no-good dad. It's played like it's supposed to be "happily ever after" from here on out. I guess the movie didn't want to dwell on the emotional fall-out when it was trying to wrap things up. Maybe the book does better, but in that case, I suppose it's somewhat of a tragedy, after all.

Otherwise, I generally liked the movie. Beautiful setting, lots of dogs, good acting. If only it wasn't Nicholas Sparks! I say that tongue-in-cheek, of course. But I do wonder if he's ever going to give us another "walk to remember." (Oh, wait, that was a tragedy, too, albeit one with morals and a hopeful, positive message at the end.)

Despicable Me, Nicholas Sparks, & Memento

The Last Song
I've seen a run of movies lately, some of which don't deserve their own post. Thus far, the only Nicholas Sparks book-turned-into-movie I have liked is A Walk to Remember. I recently watched The Last Song and Dear John. Both were tear-jerkers, and while that would usually endear me to a movie, I really didn't like either movie. I would have liked The Last Song better without Miley Cyrus. Her character didn't feel genuine to me. I haven't even watched Miley Cyrus act or perform before, and I couldn't stand her. I like her deep voice, and that's about all. I don't know why, exactly. She just comes off as fake to me.

Dear John
As for Dear John, what a horrible movie! In that case, I like the actors but couldn't stand the movie. It was all about two people who fall in love over two weeks, and then he goes off to war and they begin to drift apart. Duh. Finally, she leaves him for a man who has cancer and his autistic son. Was this supposed to endear me to her? Actually, she came off as selfish and weak to me. I totally understood and liked the soldier. Neither of them die, oddly enough for Nicholas Sparks, but all they do is hug at the end. Lame. The book is probably better.

Memento
Memento was crazy. It's a Christopher Nolan film (Inception was awesome!), and it's told backwards. The story is about a guy who can't form any short term memories although all his memories up to a certain point are intact. The last thing he remembers is his wife...dying. He's trying to discover her killer and solve her case on his own, since he doesn't know whom to trust. In order to be able to keep working on a case without short-term memory, he tattoos his body with important information and keeps photographs in his pocket. He does whatever his own writing tells him to do. He has to trust every piece of information he writes down in his own hand. It's fascinating, especially as we begin to put the picture together from the backward fragments of the character's life. The ending totally disappoints, but the movie is worth watching for cinematic value. It's rated R for language, and sections are really bad.

Despicable Me

Despicable Me was a surprise. I wasn't all that interested in seeing it, but a friend recommended it, mainly because she knew the production designer, Yarrow Cheney. You've never heard of him, but if you watch Despicable Me, he gets his very own credit screen at the end of the movie.

The movie is really funny and quirky. Villainous Gru is being upstaged by a young pyramid-snatching villain, so he gets a plan in motion to shrink and steal the moon. Meanwhile, three orphan sisters come into his life, and while trying to use them to further his evil plans, he begins to get attached. Steve Carell voices Gru and does an amazing job with an accent that reminded me slightly of my German grandfather. Gru is all dead-pan serious, but some of the things he says come off hilarious. He struck me as different than other characters Steve Carell has played. The three girls are down-to-earth smart and adorable too. I don't know where the music came from, if it was created just for this movie or not, but the title song is perfect. I thoroughly enjoyed Despicable Me. And it's a family movie. Of the four here, that's the one to see. Leave Memento for the movie connoisseurs.