Une seconde chance

... which may not necessarily be a good thing.

Oddly, you divide the two almost at the midway point, that is, the one hour mark.

The first movie is a really sweet love story about lost love. It features a lot of flashbacks but luckily the actors playing the flashbacks and the actors playing 'real time' are all very competent, do a great job,the script works well, and the audience has a fun ride.

If the first hour were a movie on its own, I would give it a very strong rating.

However almost at the turn of the second hour (two hours BTW is much too long for this story) the connection between audience and viewer (this important factor discussed in many of my IMDb reviews) starts to fade as many story complications set in. And the script becomes lost in the various arcs.

I will not go into the complications but let me say that by the "climax" of the last Act the viewer may wonder if he/she dozed off and woke up in front of the TV watching an episode of JUSTIFIED. Enough said.

If the second hour were a movie on its own, I would give it a very low rating.

As an entire movie as it now stands, this film can be a rough ride for the viewer, and that is not a good thing.

Notes:

* always happy to see Michelle Monaghan, an actress under-used these days. Real star quality.

* Liana Liberato has a nice career ahead and better still actually looks like a young Michelle Monaghan, which is more than I can say of the casting choices for the male leads

* here is a tip for casting directors. FACIAL RECOGNITION SOFTWARE. Help you avoid the problem of casting two actors playing the same role (one in flashback) WHO LOOK NOTHING AT ALL LIKE EACH OTHER

Good romantic films are almost as rare as good comedies. I really did not ask for anything special, as I like "chick flicks" and Hollywood has such a love affair with action movies, Hollywood has almost stopped making them. Nonetheless, I really disliked this one; because, even with the clichés, this movie had so much promise. The movie opens with a fine action sequence; and James Marsden is a really watchable actor. However, as soon as the parallel love stories begin, the movie falls apart. First of all "young Amanda" (Liana Liberato) not only does not look much like "older Amanda" (Michelle Monaghan), their body languages and acting styles are completely different. There is even a bigger disparity with "young Dawson" (Luke Bracey) and "older Dawson" (James Marsden). Thanks to terrific performances by Liana Liberato and Gerald McRaney, the flashback sequences are much more entertaining than the present sequences, even though Michael Hoffman's direction is much better in the present sequences. Hoffman shoots WAY too many of the flashback sequences as medium shots, when closeups would have been far better. Even the ending seems tacked on and trite.

Except for Liana Liberato and Gerald McRaney, "The Best of Me" is anything but. I give "The Best of Me" a "5".

The stage curtains open ...

Continuing my journey of films from the past that I've never seen before, I found this one - "The Best of Me". The description simply read that two former high school sweetheaerts reconnect years later in their hometown. Seeing that it starred Michelle Monaghan and James Marsden, I was all-in. Sounded like a nice, quiet and warm film to get behind and enjoy for a couple of hours. Well, that was about half right.

When both Dawson Cole and Amanda Reynolds are informed of a close friend's death, they make their way back to where they grew up to attend the reading of his last will. Neither one expected to see the other some 20 years later, and past flames and old wounds are re-opened as they go through the emotional experience of reliving their passionate past and dealing with the reality of their modern day lives. They find out that simmering beneath the surface are a lot of unresolved feelings leading to a decidedly final conclusion.

I was really enjoying this movie. I thought the characters and plot were very strong with solid acting and a fitting soundtrack. We are given snippits of their past with flashback scenes that really added to the story. And then heading into the third act, this film seriously derails into such ridiculous events that just about ruined the whole thing for me. And the final resolution is meant to make you feel wonder and awe and all I could think was, "this is B. S."

I hated the ending. This is one of those rare movies where I loved it and I hated it. So, I have to rate it right down the middle. If you are into an over-the-top, melodramatic twist ending, then you might like this one. Overall, it was entertaining, well paced, and well acted. I can't recommend it though. I don't know ... maybe a 2nd viewing might change my mind, but I doubt it.

When my friend asked me out to see this film, I reluctantly agreed. I was very pleasantly surprised. My poor friend aged a lot over time, she looked for all of her life for a true love. She never found it. This film talks exactly about that. One of the lines mentioned is exactly that. Some people find true love, some look for it for whole of their lives and they never find it.

Acting was OK for this type of film. Actors really tried their best to make this film work. Congratulations to them.

Plot was nothing special, it was based on a book. It was OK for a romance film. I really liked it.

I recommend this film, especially if you are looking for a romance film.

The story line is worthless and you walk away hating the movie, because of the story line. Everything that can happen bad, happens to these two and in the end they are destroyed again......not one positive happens to them in this story. Books and movies are supposed to be entertainment. Yes you can have some bad in movies to, but the whole thing? It's like, you meet your love of your life and she dies, then she's reincarnated and you find each other again and you die and then the kids die and then the cheating husband walks away rich......it's like why would anyone want to watch this. This is not entertainment, this is solely an attempt to make a tear jerker on top of a tear jerker and all they succeed at is making you mad at how disturbingly sadistic the story line is destroying their lives over and over again.