Nights in Rodanthe Review

Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 09.29.2008

I'll spend my nights elsewhere, thank you.

Directed by: George C. Wolfe
Written by: Ann Peacock

Starring:
Diane Lane - Adrienne Willis
Richard Gere - Dr. Paul Flanner
James Franco - Mark Flanner
Scott Glenn - Robert Torrelson
Christopher Meloni - Jack Willis
Mae Whitman - Amanda Willis
Viola Davis - Jean
Pablo Schreiber - Charlie Torrelson
Charlie Tahan - Danny Willis
Austin James - Chauffeur



Running Time: 97 minutes
Rated PG-13 for some sensuality

The novels of Nicholas Sparks have been adapted into films fairly consistently over the last ten years. The first one, Message In A Bottle, was brought to the big screen with Kevin Costner and Robin Wright Penn in front of the camera and was a profitable venture for Warner Bros. It brought in $119 million worldwide, quadrupling its thirty million dollar budget and paving the way for more. Up next was A Walk To Remember, which was a moderate success, before the breakout Sparks movie came in The Notebook. Starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, the romantic drama brought in $81 million in the US alone and brought its stars onto the map. Each of Sparks’s novels have been popular with the female demographic, traditionally a tough crowd for Hollywood to bring in. And thus comes the latest Sparks novel-turned-film, Nights in Rodanthe. Starring Richard Gere and Diane Lane, the drama has been released at the end of September in a hope to bring in the same kinds of crowd that flocked to the theaters to see Sex in the City and provide counter-programming for the Shia LaBeouf action-conspiracy Eagle Eye.

Rodanthe stars Lane as Adrienne Willis, an unhappily-wed mother of two who’s separated from her straying husband Jack (Meloni). When he asks her to let him come home, she flees to the tiny town of Rodanthe, North Carolina to run the inn owned her friend Jean (Davis). This, she hopes, will give her the solitude she needs to think it over and come to a decision about her life. The inn is quiet, and only has one guest for the weekend, so she figures she should have plenty of opportunity. Of course, this doesn’t happen, as the guest is Paul Flanner (Gere). Paul is a surgeon from Raleigh who just had a patient die on his operating table; he’s in Rodanthe to meet his patient’s husband, after which he plans to visit his estranged son (Franco) in an Ecuadorean clinic. As Paul checks in, a major storm is forecast for the area, and of course the forces of nature conspire to put them together. Paul and Adrienne must deal with their lives and decisions, and decide whether they’re going to go back to their lives or try to build something greater out of it.

If this plot seems familiar, that’s because it is. Nights in Rodanthe, much like all of the films based off Sparks’s works, is a romantic drama determined to bring its audience to tears. Unfortunately, to do so it relies on the same kind of themes; love, death, tragedy and melodrama. Working of Sparks’s novel, Ann Peacock conjures the ghosts of a thousand better romantic dramas in molding the contrivances of the novel into something worth watching on the big screen. Unfortunately, that sort of familiar territory breeds some pretty terrible dialogue and silly plot devices to bring the project to fruition. From the moment we meet each character, we know exactly what’s going to happen with each of them, and it brings the film to a conclusion in the viewer’s mind long before the movie closes; all that’s left is to watch the film to its conclusion to know that you’re right, which is a truly empty affair. Peacock is better than this kind of work, as she’s shown in scripts like The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. While anyone familiar with Sparks’s work should know exactly what they’re getting into, I find it hard to believe that even fans of The Notebook, a far superior film to this one, can find much of anything to enjoy in this work.

To be fair, this can’t particularly be blamed on the actors, who do the best they can. Richard Gere has been undergoing somewhat of a career renaissance as of late, doing excellent work in films such as The Hoax, I’m Not There and The Hunting Party. This is clearly one of his “safe roles,” as female audiences rarely have a problem picturing him in a romantic leading man role, and he shows why by making Paul a sympathetic character and playing him with a mixture of charm and skill. Lane, for her part, has suffered more than Gere as of late, her last major film role being in the terrible thriller Untraceable. It’s certainly easy to see the appeal, as she’s reuniting with the man who helped put her on the map in Unfaithful, and Lane does a decent job with the role. There’s nothing spectacular from either person, simply serviceable work that makes the film fail to be a complete loss. The supporting performances are stronger, as Scott Glenn, James Franco and Chris Meloni all rise above the limited nature of their roles; Viola Davis is engaging as Jean, the owner of the inn.

Director George C. Wolfe is best known for his work in theatre, having won a Tony Award for directing the Broadway sensation Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and its sequel Perestroika. Here, in his first film directorial effort, he plays things firmly by the numbers without taking any real leaps or risks. It’s most certainly a disappointing debut from a promising stage director, and one can only hope that he’ll be able to take future projects to far greater heights then this one. In Wolfe’s hands, the movie seems, appropriately but unsatisfactorily, more like a two-character play then a real movie, and there’s just not enough substance in the film to fill the ninety-seven minute running time. The audience is left with an ultimately hollow experience, and with a talented cast and crew involved, that’s the true shame.

The 411: Nights in Rodanthe, Richard Gere and Diane Lane's reunion film, is unfortunately an empty and derivative film that feels like a lesser version of better Nicholas Sparks works. While Gere, Lane, and the rest of the cast are engaging enough, the plot contrivances, lack of substance, and unoriginality kneecap the movie and leave the audience wanting more throughout. There are far better romantic dramas out there, and I highly recommend that instead of this one, check any number of them out. This one is nearly as much of a disaster as the storm that holds the weak plot together.

Final Score:  4.5   [ Poor ]