The Longest Ride

We've all seen romantic dramas before which are usually fraught with sappiness and sentimentality, however when they are based on a Nicholas Sparks novel as "The Longest Ride" is, then an ordinary romantic drama becomes deeper, with more than meets the eye. I'm not sure how he does it, but his novels stand out with amazing distinction beyond others in the same genre. His resume proves my point: "The Notebook" '04, "Dear John" '04, "The Last Song" '10, "The Lucky One" '12 and others.

This story centers on the star-crossed love affair between Luke Collins (Scott Eastwood), a former champion bull rider looking to make a comeback, and Sophia Danko (Britt Robertson), a college student who is about to embark upon her dream job in New York City's art world. As conflicting paths and ideals test their relationship, Sophia and Luke make an unexpected and fateful connection with Ira Levinson (Alan Alda), whose memories of his own decades-long romance with his beloved wife, Ruth (Oona Chaplin) deeply inspire the young couple. Spanning generations and two intertwining love stories, this story explores the challenges and infinite rewards of endearing love.

Others to round out the cast are Jack Huston as Young Ira, Lolita Davidovich as Kate Collins, Luke's mother, Melissa Benoist as Marcia, a dorm 'sister' of Sophia's, Elea Oberon as Mrs. Pfeffer, Kate Forbes as Ira's mother, Tiago Riani as Luiz, Danny Vinson as Larry Hill and Tracey Bonner as Nurse Wilson.

This was expertly directed by George Tillman Jr. ("Scenes for the Soul" '95, "Soul Food" '97, "Men of Honor" 2000, "Notorious" '09, "Faster" '10, "The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete" '13). This isn't the typical fare that Stillman is best known for, but it is vital that directors branch out and attempt other areas that they aren't as familiar with, especially if they don't feel pushed. It not only helps one's creativity, but also makes a filmmaker that much more marketable. And besides, this guy pulled it off in spades. It was written by Craig Bolotin ("Black Rain" '89, "Straight Talk" '92, "That Night" '92, "Light It Up" '99, "Salem Falls" (TV movie) '11), based on Sparks' novel of the same name. As said in the preface, when one has a good basis of which to work from, you would have to be a terrible writer to botch a screenplay that's based on a Sparks novel. This was a solid script, however there were a couple of very small slow areas, but certainly not enough to take away from this endearing, charming story that just takes one away to another place and another time to escape into and simply enjoy. As long as Sparks keeps writing interesting and entertaining novels, there will be a bevy of great screenplays based in the romantic drama genre. And even the chemistry between Eastwood and Robertson was well played out where these two actors clearly clicked and Alda's Ira was deftly acted with perfection.

Certainly if you are a Sparks fan this is one you won't want to miss, but even for the moviegoers out there that may have not heard of Sparks--this is a story that all can really get into, because, at the end of the day, we all want and need to connect with each other. We just need a small push that way, and this film fits the bill.

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                                  Rated: PG-13                                 128mins.