Movie Review: The Best Of Me (2014)

A dramatic romance, The Best Of Me is a story of an enduring love overloaded with tragedy.

An explosion on an oil rig off the Louisiana coast throws worker Dawson Cole (James Marsden) into the ocean, but he miraculously survives and starts to wonder about his destiny. Separately, his former highschool sweetheart Amanda Collier-Reynolds (Michelle Monaghan) is unhappy in a loveless marriage. They are both summoned to settle the estate of Dawson's surrogate father Tuck Hostetler (Gerald McRaney). 

The origins of their romance from 21 years ago are revealed in flashback. In highschool Dawson (Luke Bracey) is the kid from the wrong side of the tracks, regularly abused by his heinous father Tommy (Sean Bridgers). Amanda (Liana Liberato) is a popular girl with ambitions to become a lawyer. Despite the class divide they meet and fall in love. Dawson flees Tommy's violence and finds refuge with the kindly Tuck. The young lovers make plans for an idyllic future, but tragedy strikes, forcing a separation.

Back in the present Dawson and Amanda sort through Tuck's belongings and rekindle their passionate romance, admitting they never stopped loving each other. But she is married, and many other obstacles stand between them.

An adaptation of a 2011 Nicholas Sparks novel, The Best Of Me features an oil rig explosion, child abuse, an inadvertent killing, an infant lost to cancer, alcoholism, a shotgun confrontation, a brutal roughing-up, a sniper rifle shooting, a car crash, and open heart surgery, somehow packed into two hours. And three of these climactic moments arrive in a frenzied final 20 minutes.

Director Michael Hoffman ticks the boxes with impressive efficiency, avoiding any hints of subtlety in a drive for successive emotional highlights. The film is packaged with the visual gloss expected from a Sparks adaptation, water and light deployed to maximum effect, soft sunshine reflected off the lake, kisses in the torrential rain, sweat glistening off coyly exposed beautiful bodies.

But amidst the ridiculously frequent tragic carnage and excessive eye candy, this is actually a love story in two chapters set 21 years apart. Writers Will Fetters and J. Mills Goodloe do not spare the opposites-attract stereotypes: Dawson's family is the dictionary definition of white trash, while Amanda is the perky, smart and adventurous girl, better than her privileged upbringing and out to conquer the world. 

The admittedly sweet couple are brought to life by four decent performances. Michelle Monaghan and James Marsden are adequate bordering on tense as the adult couple now weighed down by the disillusionments of life, but their younger versions played by Liana Liberato and Luke Bracey are more prominent, radiating charisma and oxytocin. 

The Best Of Me never rises above breathlessly predictable, but is also never dull.

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Movie Review: 27 Dresses (2008)

A romantic comedy, 27 Dresses lines up and knocks down all the genre's predictable fundamentals in a story of woman learning to look after her own needs.

In New York City, super-organized Jane Nichols (Katherine Heigl) is always invited to be the maid of honour and efficiently helps her many friends pull together their weddings. Caring and selfless, she helped raise her sister Tess (Malin Åkerman) when their mother died at a young age. Now Jane harbours a secret crush on her clueless boss George (Edward Burns).

While helping out at two different weddings on the same night, Jane meets Kevin Doyle (James Marsden), who covers weddings for the New York Journal but is himself cynical about romance and the institution of marriage. Flirty Tess blows into town and immediately sets her sight on seducing George, while Jane rejects Kevin's overtures to start a relationship.

Writer Aline Brosh McKenna penned the exquisite The Devil Wears Prada, so 27 Dresses is a particular disappointment. This Katherine Heigl vehicle is a strictly formulaic rom-com as Jane stumbles to find herself and prioritize seeking her own happiness.

The moments of humour are bland, with sidekick Casey (the ever dependable Judy Greer) providing the typical caustic comments from the best friend vantage point. The romance elements are cold, Jane pining for a relationship with her boss George when he is clearly not interested, while ignoring Kevin who clearly is.

The contrived conflicts arrive courtesy of the forward Tess, who unlike her sister goes out and gets what she wants. A tangential subplot about Kevin writing a long piece about the always-bridesmaid Jane for his newspaper is used to cause the usual rift between would-be lovers, but is really an excuse for a montage featuring Heigl posing in the titular 27 dresses.

Director Anne Fletcher brings enough polish if not pizazz to the film, Heigl is dependable if vaguely disengaged, and 27 Dresses provides just enough talent to maintain a base level of interest. But a bursting wardrobe does not make a movie, and 27 Dresses needed fewer garments and much more edge.

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