Basically Sparks;

MANILA, Philippines - I am sure you all know Nicholas Sparks. He is this big-selling author whose fans hang on to his every sentence and await his every book with bated breath. Among his novels are The Notebook, Message In A Bottle, A Walk To Remember, The Rescue, A Bend In The Road, Nights In Rodanthe and The Guardian. Given the skill and speed with which he produces these novels, I think it can be safely said that there has been one Sparks book for each of these past 15 years. And given how steadfast he is with his schedule, there should be at least one Sparks novel for every year of the next 20 years or so.

Again as all of Sparks’ followers and most movie-goers know, nearly all of his books have been translated into the big screen with very good results at the box-office. Remember Kevin Costner in Message In A Bottle or James Garner in The Notebook, Mandy Moore in A Walk To Remember and others. And now you can add the lovely Michelle Monaghan of The Best Of Me into the list. The Sparks book for 2014 is The Best of Me.  Like its predecessors, it has been adapted into film and fans of Sparks and his novel must be very pleased with the movie version.

The enchanting Monaghan plays Amanda, a familiar Sparks heroine. She is a woman whose life is at a boring standstill and is doomed to remain so until she does something about it. The way Monaghan  plays her has a palpable sadness that is the crux around which the whole tale revolves. It is she who gives the things might have been different element to the story through the choices she made and must now continue to make. 

Twenty years ago, Amanda was a high school student in love with Dawson, a nice boy from the wrong side of the tracks played by James Marsden of X-Men and Enchanted. Theirs was a love doomed from the start, thanks to her disapproving father and his crime-toting Dad. But thanks to the romantic ideas of their friend, the do-gooding Tuck, they got to fall in love and dream of a future different from what they know awaits them. And the inevitable did happen.  Dawson landed in jail and Amanda went off to college. 

But Tuck, played by the wonderful Gerald McRaney, was not about to stop trying to get his lovebirds together again. And that was why neglected wife Amanda and the never married Dawson found themselves together again at Tuck’s funeral. They were to dispose of his ashes in his cottage filled with loving memories. And in the close proximity of the familiar surroundings of their high school romance, the whys of the past are answered and old feelings are rekindled. And once more, Amanda is faced with the same choices. Will she walk away again from Dawson? And what about Dawson, will he be allowed to stay?

Sparks interspersed the old with the present in his novel, a style he also used to great effect in The Notebook. And so it is with the film directed by Michael Hoffman. Flashbacks of the teen romance serve to explain what happened between Dawson and Amanda. Luke Bracey and Liana Liberato, a great looking pair, do a nice job playing the young Luke and Amanda, watching Tuck warm up to their sweetness and innocence. And seeing his faith in young love is one of the most touching parts of the story.

And that is not all that Hoffman serves up to please the Sparks fanatics around us. Aside from the rich girl-meets-poor boy base, there is also the moneyed parent offering his daughter’s boyfriend $80,000 to end the relationship; memorable quotes like “You want me to fall back in love with you? How can I do that if I’ve never stopped?” Ouch!!! First love never dies.

What about kissing in the rain, the sudden illness, the unexpected sacrifice and tragedy. And most surprising the manifestation of the inexplainable bond people in love maintain through distance and through years. Just as Dawson has a near fatal accident in an oil rig, the face he sees in his mind is Amanda’s. Miles away, Amanda inexplainably shudders. A connection is established.

I wonder if people watching that scene in The Best Of Me will think that a connection remains forever in the hearts of those they truly loved and lost. Sparks makes one believe things like that and in a setting as beautifully photographed as The Best Of Me they would be likely to accept all that his romances offer. Including the tears.

Watch but don’t forget the tissues.