The
Longest Ride
This is the anti-Fast and Furious. The Longest Ride is
based on a book by Nicholas Sparks, so you know it will involve scenes
by a lake in a sleepy Southern town, more melodrama than should be
allowed by law and someone’s dramatic death. Yet, no matter how
formulaic it might be, director George Tillman, Jr. conducts an all out
assault on your tear ducts with plenty of support from Alan Alda. I was
almost ready to surrender. Almost.
Britt (The Next “It” Girl In Waiting) Robertson, stars as
Sophia Danko – a shy, but secretly spunky college senior from New
Jersey who attends North Carolina’s Wake Forest. She’s
studious and so serious about her love for Art she already has lined up
an internship in New York City, which starts in two months.
Of course, all of that gets thrown into the middle of a hurricane of
hormones and a tsunami of passion when Sophia gets dragged to the local
rodeo and meets Luke Collins (Scott Eastwood) – a champion bull
riding cowboy who looks like an underwear model and combines his rugged
handsomeness with old school charm and chivalry.
As if that wasn’t enough to make her jaw drop, on the way back
from their first date, Luke saves the life of a kindly old man, Ira
(Alda), who has been injured in a horrible car accident (Yes, Luke is
the most macho man in the history of the world).
Sophia strikes up a relationship with Ira as she reads his beautiful
love letters to Ruth (Oona Chaplin), which makes her think about her
own love for Luke, and the travails they face.
Can Luke and Sophia overcome their differences to find true love?
What happens between Ira and Ruth?
Like I mentioned before, when something is based on a Nicholas Sparks
book, you know what you are getting into, but the team behind The
Longest Ride does everything humanly possible to overcome a
predictable story full of the traditional Sparks formula. I was almost
ready to give it a pass until we have yet another preposterous ending,
which is just as vital and recurring to the Sparks formula as the lake
in a sleepy Southern town.
Alda is one of the most charming and beloved actors who has ever lived,
and he uses every ounce of charisma and goodwill to make Ira a
heartfelt, tragic and inspirational character. His narration is so full
of emotion and delivered with such an effortlessly sounding perfection
it could be a movie all on its own. Every member of the audience loves
Ira, and roots for his love story to be epic.
Sadly, Craig Bolotin doesn’t give us enough of either story for
them to be epic enough. We have two light love stories begging for more
complication, more depth, more detail and more emotional wallop.
Sophia and Luke face two major hurdles, but neither one seems all that
insurmountable as presented in The Longest Ride. We should see
more struggling and more conflict.
Robertson seems to have enough acting ability to carry something more
substantial, while Eastwood fulfills his role of looking like an
underwear model (OK, he’s better than that, but utter jealousy
keeps me from saying it).
Then, Ira and Ruth face tragedy, but it is resolved too easily and
neatly. Their complication seems to re-emerge after being addressed
earlier in the movie, as if Bolotin and Sparks couldn’t come up
with something better, so they go back to the tried and true.
Bolotin and Tillman substitute plenty of emotion for story, so many
will walk out satisfied, but The Longest Ride would have
benefited from one less twist at the end and beefing up the plot.
The
Longest Ride is rated PG-13 for some sexuality, partial nudity, and
some war and sports action.
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