Movie Review: The Lucky One

On Friday, April 20th, the latest in a line of Nicolas Spark’s movies is being released joining the ranks of The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, The Last Song, and Dear John.

The Lucky One follows Marine Logan Thibault as he returns home to search for a mysterious woman whose picture he found while on tour in the Middle East that he credits with saving his life. Logan travels on foot to a small southern town, where he meets his good luck charm Beth and is thrust into her life by taking a position at her home run dog kennel. As Logan searches for a way to explain the reason he appeared into her life, Logan and Beth grow close and fall into a whirlwind relationship resulting in their two worlds colliding.

The Lucky One carries all of the typical components of a Nicholas Spark’s movie; a couple that faces an obstacle that makes falling in love seem impossible, they fall in love anyway,  a disaster soon follows and they ride off into the sunset regardless. What The Lucky One also has in common with all the previous stories told before it, is the audience will leave happy.

At 100min., The Lucky One starring Zac Effron and Taylor Schilling rarely has a lagging moment. Packed with drama, romance, action and sadness, this movie has the full package that will keep you hooked until the credits roll. Like other Spark’s movies, The Lucky One has a way of sucking you into the small town and the lives of the characters, feeling like you are a part of the culture.

Taylor Schilling, a virtually unknown actress owns the screen as single mom, Beth, living with her Nanna, trying to deal with the loss of her brother and a pain in the rear end ex husband who constantly threatens taking her son, Ben, away. Zac Effron shines as an off duty marine dealing with post war trauma while trying to find one of the only things that makes sense in his world.

As a lover of all chick flicks, I had a feeling walking in to The Lucky One that I wasn’t going to be disappointed. I was drawn into the story within the first five minutes and became frustrated as the credits started to roll. The one complaint I had, was I found it weird to see Zac Effron portraying a full on adult after growing up watching him in High School Musical. Needless to say, after seeing the movie, I now think that Zac Effron should be cast in every romance film ever. Ever.