Review: 'The Lucky One'

Film: The Lucky One
Director:  Scott Hicks
Cast: Zac Efron, Taylor Schilling and others
Rating: **

 

Nicholas Sparks' novels essentially follow the same formula as Mills and Boons, only with lesser sex. From the very first page you are aware of what you have signed on for. Based on his book of the same name The Lucky One is a romantic drama about destiny, luck, chance and finding true love where you least expect it.  

 

A Marine soldier Sgt. Logan Thibault (Zac Efron) on his third tour in Iraq escapes an explosion when he moves to pick up a picture of a girl from the ground. Keeping the picture with him apparently is what keeps him alive, she becomes his lucky charm. Once home, a war-ravaged Logan sets out with his faithful dog Zeus to find the girl in the picture and thank her.

 

The journey (which is completely done on foot for some reason) takes him to the little town of Hamden where he finds the girl Beth Green (Taylor Schilling), a divorcee and single mother who runs a kennel, living a quiet 50s style life with her son and grandmother. After failing to explain how exactly he landed there Logan gets a job at the kennel. What follows is a sappy saga of love between two emotionally damaged people.

 

The Lucky One is painfully predictable and the dialogues just a bunch of clichés thrown at the audience. You will find lines like “You should be kissed every minute of every day of every week” strewn across the film, which is, frankly, quite irritating.

 

Efron is not the kid he was in High School Musical, yes, but he isn’t the man either that this film required. His performance as the troubled soldier fails to make an impression. Schilling does well as the beautiful-soft-spoken-small-town Beth; the dialogues are not really her fault.

 

The cinematography though is beautiful. The small town setting with charming shots of tree lined streets, little ponds; fall leaves etc make for excellent visuals.

 

This reviewer has nothing against the romantic drama genre, but The Lucky One  is a little too over the top. There is such a thing as “too typical”.

 

When to watch this film? Right after a break up, in your pajamas when you want a good cry over nothing at all. This weekend however, find something better to do.