By Guy Davis
Ready for a little romantic-melodrama bingo? Okay, here we go.
Soulful Richard Gere. Heartsick Diane Lane. Ramshackle bed-and-breakfast by the sea. Sassy African-American best friend. Slow-dancing to an oldie but goodie. Redemption for a past mistake. Horses galloping along a beach.
Wait, what was that? From the author of ”The Notebook”? Ladies and gentlemen (but mainly ladies), we have a winner, and it’s ”Nights in Rodanthe”.
Here’s the thing about movies like this – they’re not really made for everyone. They’re targeted at a very specific audience, and ”Nights in Rodanthe” is like a heat-seeking missile closing in on that target at full speed.
It’s satisfyingly schmaltzy, with everyone involved bringing a nice degree of sincerity to the proceedings.
Based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks, the Zen master of heartache, heartbreak and new beginnings, it follows Dr Paul Flanner (Gere) as he spends a few nights at a beachfront B&B in the coastal town of Rodanthe.
The good doctor has some personal business to attend to, some of which involves his son (an uncredited James Franco), some of which involves the widowed husband (Scott Glenn) of one of his patients.
Adrienne Willis (Lane) is looking after the B&B while its owner, Jean (Viola Davis), is away. Like Dr Paul, she’s got issues – an estranged husband (Christopher Meloni) seeking a reconciliation and a teenage daughter who’s meant to be rebellious but is really just a pain.
Hmmm, do you think these two might be able to break down one another’s defences and ease each other’s pain?
Look, it’s all quite contrived and overstated – indeed, there are times when it’s downright florid – but it’s hard to deny its conviction. There’s hardly a cynical bone in ”Nights in Rodanthe”’s body, and that gives it no small degree of appeal.
This is the third screen teaming of Gere and Lane, and they’re awfully well-matched.
Even if he’s once again playing the slightly tarnished white knight who needs to be rescued by a good woman and she’s once again playing a woman who finds the inner strength to overcome adversity and self-doubt, they’re both good enough to give the roles some life.
