Boy from the wrong side of the tracks (played at varying ages by Luke Bracey and James Marsden) falls for rich man’s daughter (Liana Liberato/Michelle Monaghan). An inability to divine where this timeworn premise might lead makes you the perfect audience demographic. Nicholas Sparks’ notion of destiny is two different cars breaking down on two different days bringing two different people together. (The only thing Nicholas sparks is a primer on romantic cliches for infertile teenage imaginations.) It’s a case of writer-as-auteur-as-director. Michael Hoffman does what he’s told, jumping willy-nilly between time-frames, desperately striving to make perfectly clear Sparks’ myopic vision. Liberato comes off best, while vacant-eyed Bracey emotes only when removing his shirt. I went in hoping for something bad-great along the lines of Sparks’ stupendously imbecilic Safe Harbor. What unraveled was simply grating. Strictly for spiteful teenage girls desiring to cinematically waterboard their boyfriends. (2014) — Scott Marks
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