Zac Efron stars in this adaptation of the bestselling romance novel by Nicholas Sparks, author of The Notebook.
On his third tour of duty in Iraq, Logan (Efron) avoids a fatal incident after finding a mysterious photograph of a woman he’s never met. Crediting the photo for keeping him alive, he returns home and travels to North Carolina with the hope of meeting her.
Nicholas Sparks' good box-office fortunes may have run out with this heavy-handed (marsh) mallow-drama. The magnificent Message in a Bottle and A Walk to Remember seem like distant memories when confronted with this southern-set slice of syrupy and soapy romance. Essentially a Mills and Boon story (complete with shadowy, soft-focus love scenes), the film feels more like a period drama such is the seeming helplessness of the female lead and the black-hatted nature of the main villain (who you swear was inspired by Back to the Future's Biff Tannen).
Whilst Taylor Schilling seems more like a shorts-catalogue model than an actress, the major problem is with Zac Efron's “really, really ridculously good looking”, impossibly perfect character. His struggle to emote through the problem is etched on his mostly blank face - he makes Dear John's Channing Tatum seem like Jeremy Irons in comparison. With drama delivered via the subtlety of a sledgehammer and plot machinations even the most naive moviegoers will be able to see coming a mile off, the lucky ones will be those who give this a wide berth.
By James Croot, Flicks.co.nz
This film definitely wasn't as cringe worthy as the films that have gone before it such as Dear John and The Last Song- both terrible. It did have it moments, but overall an enjoyable watch.
The Lucky One With the people that borought you 'The Notebook' 'Remember Me' and 'Dear John' you just know its not a guy film and maybe a bit of a tear jerker.. and it was. With bouts of 'Enough' and like sooo many other chick flicks. The damaged troubled young guy, in search of something, a hard women that just needs love to help her heal, and a confronting ex.. I tease but really, just its pretty good. It so didnt make me cry. Genre : drama, love story, human growth 3/5 : way too much like so many other love story films, easy to watch an enjoyable
As a pretty, low-stakes bayou romance The Lucky One works well enough. When asked to carry any kind of dramatic weight, however, it collapses.
The Lucky One is at its heart a romance novel, elevated however by Nicholas Sparks' persuasive storytelling.
The Lucky One doesn't have the schlock rapture of "The Notebook" (the one Sparks adaptation that has really worked). The trouble with the movie isn't that it's too girly-swoony; it's that it tries to achieve emotion through glowy sunsets and a paint-by-numbers script.
Embalming the simple and simplistic yarn in an amber glow that is all but suffocating and banishing from it any traces of humor and spontaneity, director Scott Hicks serves up this treacly tale with absolutely no trace of self-consciousness about the material's cliches or simple-mindedness.
As a person who removes a woman's clothing in the half light of a Southern afternoon, Efron acquits himself reasonably well.
