I Saved The Best Of Me For You (Movie Thoughts: The Best Of Me)

I would be the type to see a film adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks book on opening weekend.  You know hopeless romantic and all that. But here I am, seeing "The Best Of Me" on a Saturday nigh ton video, five months after its theatrical run. Maybe it's just as well, though. There's a lot of wrongs in this movie, directed by Michael Hoffman. The Sparks book is creaky enough: it's one of those potboilers with plot holes as big as Sparks' book royalties. But people eat it up, and his fans will do the same here, regardless of what doesn't make sense in the story. Half the film is told in flashback, from 1992, but it feels like its he fifties with all the backwards thinking of people in the scenes. It cuts to present time, with James Marsden and Michele Monaghan game to the proceedings. Basically the story boils down to the "what might have been" variety: you see your first and only big love twenty tears later (twenty one, Marsden corrects) and you sense sparks (ha!) are still there. But suspend your disbelief, because the hopeless in all of us will love the message this film offers: that to love someone in your life is enough. In fact, it's more than enough. That's not a bad thought to think about, as there are people who live in this world without having the capacity to love someone else. Can you imagine living your life not having fallen in love with someone? This movie says that life is a wasted one. Marsden is especially good here, with his puppy dog marble blue eyes gorgeous enough to pierce your heart. Roll your eyes for sure, but if you have ever fallen in love - and let's face it, all of us has - I bet this film touches something basic in you.