The Choice review: The latest Nicholas Sparks adaptation takes a bow. Lovers of The Hallmark Channel may take a shine to this…
The Choice review by Sacha Hall. If you’re not a fan of Nicholas Sparks’ cinematic brand of modern day Mills & Boon, you may as well cease reading and move right along to another film. On the other hand, if complicated fatalist love stories involving attractive people in picturesque locations are your escapist go to, then The Choice will undoubtedly satisfy your syrupy sweet movie-going soul.
The Sparksian formulaic is unapologetically on show: North Carolinian locale (thank you Beaufort), a clichéd script with overblown plot twists, and antithetically waspy characters, partial to complicated, drama-fuelled relationships and cheesy utterances (although, had I actually heeded Benjamin Walker’s prologue and paid attention to the path I took today, I personally may have made a different choice). Yet despite this and critics’ loathing of Sparks’ oeuvre, the greatest cliché of them all is that everyone loves a good love story… in particular, a Sparks love story.
The latest book-turned-feature film tells the complicated love story of uptight and driven medical student Gabby Holland (Teresa Palmer) and her next door neighbour Travis (Walker), a confident and laid-back veterinarian. Told in flashback seven years earlier, the two meet when Gabby becomes frustrated with the loud music blaring from Travis’ beachfront property. Relaxed following his day out on the water and backyard barbeque with friends, Travis attempts to calmly assuage her angry overreaction to his music only to find his self additionally accused of not controlling his dog due to Gabby’s dog’s pregnancy.
Setting the tone for their relationship, the over-the-top bickering unconvincingly masks their mutual attraction, longing glances and not-so-subtle flirtations. There’s a problem however – both are in unfulfilling relationships: Gabby on the marriage track with her doctor boyfriend Ryan (Tom Welling), and Travis with his ‘boomerang’ girl Monica (Alexandra Daddario) – but luckily for us, this is a Sparks vehicle so a plot turn will quickly take care of that.
Cue the boyfriend business trip.
With the door now open for a few weeks thanks to Ryan, Gabby and Travis’ romance deepens over puppies, dinners, philosophy and puppies. Did I mention puppies? Forced to make a decision about their passionate relationship (which fails to impress on screen) when Ryan returns, Gabby takes a wrong turn (which I put down to female prerogative) before coming to her senses once again.
And just like their whirlwind romance, their ‘perfect’ marriage and expanding family progresses temporally thanks to a series of tantalising and sparkling shots across the water and of picturesque sunsets. But this is no typical romcom and our protagonists have one more plot twist to overcome (thanks to a near fatal accident) before riding off into the sunset or ascending into heaven.
Walker carries the film from that point until the final act where we finally reach our tearful crescendo. Thank you God.
There are no surprises (or earth shattering moments) to be had in The Choice. I would have preceded the last sentence with ‘unfortunately’ but after ten earlier re-imaginings of ‘When Hilfiger met Lauren’, should anyone have really expected anything different?
Lovers of the Hallmark channel may like The Choice, as for the rest of us, it’s a movie that exemplifies why we’re not subscribers.
The Choice review by Sacha Hall, March 2016.
The Choice is released in UK cinemas on Friday 4th March, 2016.
