And we’re back. From the opening shot of a Miller-time sunset over an azure sea, you know you’re in the world of Nicholas Sparks – a world in which our manly oil-rigging hero reads Stephen Hawking and saves two people’s lives in the first 10 minutes while somewhere across the star-crossed skies a beautiful but dissatisfied and deserving woman longs for something... better. This time, our players are James Marsden (replacing the late Paul Walker) and Michelle Monaghan as Dawson and Amanda, essayed in their Endless Love younger years by likable Luke Bracey and lovable Liana Liberato. Dawson is Amanda’s one and only and it’s easy to see why; he’s a man of few words who can fix a car, mend a roof, hoe a garden and look fabulous with his shirt off – like that guy in the Coke advert, only with a Budweiser. Fate has torn them apart, but love will... oh, you get the picture. Michael Hoffman directs but novelist/producer Sparks is the auteur here – whether his films are made by Nick Cassavetes, Lasse Hallström or Luis Mandoki, they all look exactly the same. And I love them for it; indeed, as guilty pleasures go, they are my greatest weakness, particularly when (as in this case) they go full-on laugh/groan/cry-out-loud bonkers in the final reel. You can sneer, but I don’t care – the heart wants what it will, and my heart wants Sparks. So there.
