The Lucky One Review: Meh

Is Nicholas Sparks' The Lucky One Worth a Trip to the Theater?

"When will they stop seeing me as a pretty boy?" Never Zac...never

For longtime Nick Sparks' fans, this will probably be a nice outing. If you aren't a fan of dramatic chick-flicks with cliche plot elements, then this is probably not for you.

The movie follows ex-marine Logan (Zac Efron), who travels to Louisiana to find a girl from a picture he found while serving in Iraq. He believes the picture was a "Guardian angel" who protected him through almost two full tours of duty. He survived a bombing because he found the picture, and believes he survived multiple incidents after it because he had it with him. He discovers the girl-Beth (Taylor Schilling)- finally, at a pet shelter, and he starts working there. They fall in love, there's drama with another guy, and it progresses like any other Nicholas Sparks story. I won't give away the ending or details on the drama that unfolds.

Pictured: The audition.  Walking.

The downside of the movie is just that: it's very cliche, and just a rehash of any other NS film. This means longtime fans of The Notebook, Dear John, or The Last Song will probably enjoy it. If you didn't like any of the aforementioned titles, you should stay away, because this doesn't bring very many new things to the table. It's 101 minutes long, which isn't a very long running time, but the story bogs in some places, and I'm fairly certain that one third (or what felt like one third) of the movie was simply footage of Logan walking his dog.

Besides the very large downside of being unoriginal, The Lucky One does have its upsides.  It's actually a very well acted movie. You really can feel for the characters, and Zac Efron (haters gonna hate) does a fine job as the tortured ex-marine do-gooder. You root for him the whole time, simply because he's a perfect human being. When it comes time for him to showdown with his competition for Beth, (no spoilers don't worry) he handles it in an unexpected yet satisfying way. Efron is definitely starting to show Hollywood that he does have some acting chops, and not just a pretty face (with a sexy body). It seems to me the star has come a long way since his High School Musical days. The rest of the cast is likewise talented, with Jay R. Ferguson doing a particularly nice job as the jerk-sheriff Keith.

Overall I would say it wasn't a disappointing trip to the theater, but it wasn't anything special either. Good acting and character doesn't make up for, but still balances out, a boring and bogged down plot-line. Again, if you're a NS fan, you'll probably love this.

The Lucky One gets a 5 out of 10 from me.


Your Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman,

Zack