Luke (Scott Eastwood) and Sophia (Britt Robertson) enjoy getting to know each other while dining al fresco
Eventful, polished, and knuckle-bitingly dull, the 10th film adapted from a novel by Nicholas Sparks, combines fate, bull riding and some powerful Hollywood bloodlines among its young cast. In sun-dappled North Carolina, a studly bull rider Luke (Scott "son of Clint" Eastwood) falls in love with cute Wake Forest art major, Sophia (Britt Robertson) who will soon leave for a coveted intern job in New York. Fortunately, an aged car accident casualty, Ira (Alan Alda) gets Sophie to read some of his diary-like love letters to his late wife, Ruth, which triggers a parallel story, set in the 1940s. Jack Huston (grandson of John) plays the gawky young Ira, with a vibrant Oona Chaplin (granddaughter of Charlie) as his cultured Austrian-Jewish immigrant wife, Ruth. Their story is intended as an example to the young folk of how love requires sacrifice, though the movie's ridiculous ending also allows for lucrative miracles.
Liam Lacey