The Longest Ride

Considering how fast these movies based on Nicholas Sparks' books are coming out (the last one was a mere six months ago), I think it's safe to say that Sparks is to Hollywood today what Stephen King was to Hollywood back in the 80s and early 90s.  While the two authors couldn't be more different in their style and storytelling (Sparks is a hopeless romantic who mainly deals with melodrama, while King usually dabbles in the supernatural), they both have an installed fanbase, as well as follow a pretty rigid formula.

The latest Sparks novel to hit the screen, The Longest Ride, is probably the best adaptation of his work since The Notebook.  It's certainly one of the more watchable recent efforts.  The key to the film's success is to toss aside some of the unfortunate elements that have become regular tropes in a Sparks story, like over the top melodrama, contrived tear-jerking moments built around someone dying (usually cancer), evil rednecks who look and act like rejects from a Texas Chainsaw Massacre family reunion, and unnecessary side characters who are trying to keep the central lovers apart because they come from different worlds.  Mind you, some of these elements like the evil rednecks are still present, but they don't play as prominent of a role.  And somebody does die, but it's not of cancer for a change.  And when trouble does show up in the relationship of the two young lovers, it's their own decision to end things, not the result of outside manipulation. 

This is a simple and sweet love story, more precisely, two simple and sweet love stories.  Yes, both are relentlessly cornball as you would expect, but I didn't mind so much this time around, because I didn't feel so jerked around by the screenplay.  The two love stories take place in the present, and in the 1940s and 50s, respectively.  In the present, we have Sophia Danko (Britt Robertson), a straight-laced Sorority girl who is finishing up her last year of college, and has already lined up an internship at a New York art gallery after she graduates.  Then her best friend decides to take her to a local bull riding event, where she meets the handsome and rugged Luke Collins (Scott Eastwood, son of Clint).   Luke is the embodiment of old fashioned Southern hospitality and manly charms.  When one of Sophia's Sorority sisters lays eyes on him, she swoons "I want a cowboy, too".  Sophia and Luke hit it off instantly, and love seems almost certain.

But of course, she's got that job in New York coming up, and he's a born and raised cowboy who lives for riding bulls and the wide open spaces.  How are they going to make this work?  They decide to try their luck anyway, and begin dating.  While driving home together one night, they happen upon a car accident, where they rescue an old man named Ira Levinson (Alan Alda) and a mysterious box he had in his possession from the flaming car.  At the hospital, Sophia builds a friendship with Ira, and learns that the box is full of old letters that he wrote to a woman he once loved named Ruth.  Judging by the number of letters that are stuffed in there, he must have been writing her every week for a good number of years.  As Sophia reads the letters, this brings us to our second love story, as we witness in flashbacks how a younger Ira (Jack Huston) meets the lovely Ruth (Oona Chaplin) and dreams of marrying her and building a family.  When Ira was sent out to fight in World War II, he was wounded, which prevented him from ever having children.  They married anyway after he returned home, and their story follows their efforts to create a life together.

The Longest Ride is fairly laid back for a love story, and especially for one based on a Nicholas Sparks book.  It's simply about two different couples in different time periods, and lessons being passed down from both.  I appreciated that the movie doesn't waste time in introducing outside characters who are against the lovers being together, like we so often see.  The characters here are a little bit more human, make mistakes, and come across as being quite likable.  This is mostly due to some good chemistry between the two main couples in the separate storylines.  Robertson and Eastwood have a certain knowing sense of humor with each other.  They're sweet, but not sappy, and aren't afraid to poke fun at each other.  Yeah, the problems they face are pretty much predetermined by the plot (Will Sophia choose the big city life, or stay with the man she loves?), but the movie doesn't play up this problem as much as you would think, and the ending actually comes up with a somewhat surprising way of solving the central problem to their relationship.

The other couple the movie focuses on, Ira and Ruth, seem a bit underdeveloped, but are still likable thanks to the strong performances by Huston and Chaplin.  They give the characters more life than the script probably provided.  Their nostalgic love story is sweet and good natured, and we buy them as a couple, again mostly due to the performances and the chemistry they share.  As the older Ira, Alan Alda more or less serves as another Nicholas Sparks character type, the wise old elder who passes down advice to the younger couple.  Still, he fills the role well, and gets off some dry sarcastic wit that made me chuckle from time to time.  He may be playing a standard character type, but at least he doesn't act like he is, and injects as much life as he can into his performance.

I was pleasantly surprised by the way that The Longest Ride made me care about the characters.  I liked seeing them together, and wanted them to be happy.  That is ultimately the goal of any romantic drama, and this one succeeds by focusing solely on the characters, and not on a lot of unnecessary outside melodrama.  The movie is far from perfect, but it works well enough for me to like it more than I expected.

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