Diane Lane mends broken heart with new-found love in "Nights in Rodanthe"

She earned Oscar® and Golden Globe nominations, and was hailed Best Actress by the New York Film Critics for her turn as an adulterous wife in the critically acclaimed 2002 film “Unfaithful.” Now, Diane Lane stars in another heart-breaking romantic-drama opposite Richard Gere, in Warner Bros.’ “Nights in Rodanthe.”

Based on the Nicholas Sparks bestseller, the story of “Nights in Rodanthe” suggests that it’s never too late to find that one true connection, and that it is likewise never too late to regain the self you lost along the way, while living the life you thought you wanted—or that others expected of you. Indeed, it is a sweeping love story in the Nicholas Sparks tradition (“Message in a Bottle,” “A Walk to Remember”).

Lane, who stars as Adrienne, attributes Sparks’ appeal to “his sensitivity to people’s hearts. I think there is an appetite for seeing that other people are like us and have needs similar to our own, no matter the era, age or circumstances. Love crosses all lines.”

In the film, while still coping with the fact that her husband has been seeing another woman, Adrienne is hit with the further disorienting news that he has changed his mind and wants her back. Clearly, this is what her two children want, in particular her daughter, who applies as much pressure as she can muster toward that end. Certainly it would be the simplest solution….but is it what Adrienne really wants?

“She’s in a 180-degree spin, first bracing for divorce, now a possible reconciliation. Adrienne has given up a lot of freedom over the years by putting her family first and she’s been comfortable with that, but lately she’s been honing a new identity for herself as a single woman and finds it’s not so easy to abandon that and go back,” says Lane.  

“I don’t think Adrienne sees herself as ripe for romance,” she adds. “That’s not at all where her mind is. She probably doesn’t see herself as ripe for anything right now except maybe three months in a spa.”

Then along came Paul (Richard Gere) who has come to Rodanthe to fulfill a difficult obligation and to face his own crisis of conscience. 

“Paul and Adrienne act as catalysts for each other’s self-realization,” offers screenwriter Ann Peacock. “Paul enables Adrienne to do what is right for her rather than what she had been conditioned to doing, and Adrienne enables Paul to drop his guard and open himself to the possibility of love and forgiveness.” 

Concludes Lane, “What you potentially bring to a relationship at this stage is often so much more than what you had to offer at eighteen. You have more insight, more personality and more appreciation of things—and of each other.” 

Opening soon across the Philippines, “Nights in Rodanthe” will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.