Nights In Rodanthe review

Nights In Rodanthe is the fourth film to be based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks. And like The Notebook, A Walk to Remember and Message in a Bottle before it, it's an unadulterated heart-tugging romance. It has no delusions, and makes no apologies, about what it is, laying on the sentiment in thick swathes. But it's hard not to be moved by its wrenching tale of a couple that unexpectedly finds deep and true love late in their life.

That the couple is played by Richard Gere and Diane Lane, who were paired together in Unfaithful, means they bring an understanding and connection to the relationship. How much you are able to relate to the couple and their feelings will be a determining factor in how you view Nights In Rodanthe. For many, it might be easily dismissed as unoriginal and predictable, but for others, the story of the transformative impact of true love will resonate strongly.

Adrienne Willis (Diane Lane) is a mother of two who has been separated from her adulterous husband Jack (Christopher Meloni) for seven months when she accepts an invitation from her best friend Jean (Viola Davis) to look after her beachfront boarding house in the small North Carolina town of Rodanthe. On the eve of her departure, Jack asks her to forgive him and let him come home. Dr Paul Flanner (Richard Gere) is the sole guest at the boarding house, having come to Rodanthe to meet up with Robert Torrelson (Scott Glenn), the husband of a patient who died during the course of a routine operation by Flanner.

Finding themselves thrown together in the remote and picturesque setting, the sparks fly between Willis and Flanner, heating things up on the inside while outside a storm is brewing. Both are emotionally vulnerable. Flanner admires Willis' devotion to her children. His total immersion in his career left little time for his now grown up son Mark (James Franco). She responds to his flattery and encouragement, something she had been starved of in her marriage. Both quickly become swept up by the intoxicating rush of love.

George C. Wolfe makes a solid directorial debut, doing his best not to get in the way of Gere and Lane, leaving them to forge a palpable partnership as they color the relationship between Willis and Flanner with a comfortable shorthand of looks and gestures. Films about romances between mature couples might not have cinema audiences queuing round the block, but how long a line would you stand in if you knew you would find true love at the end of it? If it is anything like the love felt by Willis and Flanner, then no queue would be too long.

Kevin Murphy