Nights in Rodanthe (Blu-ray) | Jacquie Kubin reviews, Blu-ray, Romance | DONNE TEMPO
Nights in Rodanthe (Blu-ray)
It’s a formula that works in books where imagination can fill in the blanks; where the reader can add the nuggets of wisdom garnered from their own life to understand why she, or he, did that.
And there in lies the problem. This script leaves Richard Gere and Diane Lane, who have shown us incredible chemistry in past works, notably “The Cotton Club” and “Unfaithful,” leave us waiting for something more.
More than a romantic walk on the beach, a dance on the pier or the revelation that love can be found a second time around.
Even though those things are all very satisfying to watch.
But they are covered in the trailer. I was hoping for more. So much more.
Gere is Dr. Paul Flanner, a plastic surgeon that comes to Rodanthe to talk to the grieving husband (Scott Glenn) of a patient lost during a routine procedure. Glenn delivers a standout performance by creating a character that the audience can truly care about as he grieves a wife lost years before her time.
However we never really care about Dr. Flanner’s turmoil over the loss of his patient, practice, wife or son. All are experiences that alter Flanner’s life but that director George C. Wolfe treats with nothing more than a series of brief flashbacks.
It is hard to understand why we should care about him.
Adrianne’s draw to Rodanthe is cloaked as a favor to her “best friend” Jean (Viola Davis) who needs someone to watch over her Bed and Breakfast while leaving in a whirlwind as a hurricane approaches.
As Jean is packing she explains, foreshadowing the obvious, that the old house has fared its share of hurricanes in the past.
Flanner, the B&B’s only guest, takes turns with Adrianne as they present angst-ridden deeply personal, if not cryptic, revelations of loss and betrayal by spouses and children while identifying what they have in common including music, Jack Daniels and wine. Unfortunately, even with such a lovely leading couple, it all seems rather one-dimensional and really not that interesting.
Their inevitable love scene comes courtesy of a hurricane that for a too brief moment steals the film with incredible violence only to be left behind as Adrianne and Paul consummate their passion in a very impassionate way.
In all fairness, Lane and Gere do provide some moments of film romance brilliance however their chemistry, the chance to find love after so much loss, the remarkableness of finding each other on a sand bar when they both needed each other so deeply, is handled much too lightly by both the script and director.
Nights in Rodanthe includes enough heart clutching scenes enhanced by Lane’s expressive, and quite beautiful, face to earn it the dubious distinction of “chic flick” but it left me wanting more. Even Adrianne’s “I will live to love again” scene where in she passes her newly earned wisdom to her daughter leaves one wondering “so?”
Really, the only thing I cared about post-movie was if that wonderful house really exists?
Yes, it does. The houses real name is Serendipity and it can be found on the Outerbanks of South Carolina.
The goods: The house, the ocean, the Outer Banks Spanish barb horses. The Special Edition Blu-Ray features a Digital Copy of the film that plays in hi-def on Blu Ray and Playstation 3 players. The digital copy does add a bit of brilliance to a film whose most redeeming value is that it is pretty to watch.
The mandatory extras: The Blu-ray Special Edition adds three featurettes, a Music Video for Rossdale’s Love Remains the Same, alternate scenes with optional commentary that seems redundant and just boring and BD-Live delivering more exclusive content that makes this very one-faceted movie stretch, like a sand bar, for a very long time.
Book Author Nicholas Sparks feature on how great he is and how perfect his life is and how important all that he does is should not have been first person. Way too self-serving and pompous. I will never be able to watch one of his movies, or read one of his books, without thinking how great he is, at least in his own mind’s eye.
Above and beyond: Emmy Lou Harris’ feature on the films title song is great because it is always nice to watch this amazing artist.
- Jacquie Kubin