Daytime soap operas should stay on television. No one wants to watch a sappy, clich?-filled hour-and-a-half of “entertainment” anywhere but on a comfy couch at 11 a.m. with a bottle of wine — or sparkling juice, depending on age. Sadly enough, “Nights in Rodanthe,” a film from George C. Wolfe (television’s “Lackawanna Blues”) based off the novel by “The Notebook” author Nicholas Sparks, found its way onto the big screen with more clich?s and sap than anything on TV between 10 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. Although the premise — a second chance at love — has worked before in movies like “Frankie and Johnny,” every romantic stereotype in this movie would have even Romeo and Juliet rolling their eyes.
Adrienne (Diane Lane, “Unfaithful”) lives a chaotic life. Her older daughter hates her, and her ex-husband (Christopher Meloni, “Law and Order: SVU”) wants to return home after a nine-month affair. To escape her problems, she looks after her friend’s inn on the shore of North Carolina. Enter Paul (Richard Gere, “Chicago”), a doctor caught in a lawsuit. He stays at the inn, wanting to talk to the family who is suing him, but, because he is the only guest at the resort, Adrienne and Paul grow close and fall in love. But troubled times land upon the couple when Paul is forced to leave to find his son in South America, and Adrienne and Paul fight to keep their romance alive.
Director George C. Wolfe, in his film debut, has much to learn about how to direct movies. Wolfe won the Tony Award in the early ’90s for directing “Angels in America,” arguably one of the many great American plays. With his theatre background, Wolfe attempts to film a play of the novel and throw in some exterior shots of the pretty North Carolina coast. All the scenes feel theatrical because Wolfe tries to create “stage pictures.” The problem is the audience moves with the camera, unlike the stationary view of a play; the art is in the editing and camerawork, not one image from one view. This also caused a feeling of forced blocking on screen; most of the movement was awkward and unrealistic because it felt choreographed. In theater, the actors move to appeal to the people in the first and last rows. In movies, everyone has a close up, and theatrical movement on screen is simply too big and uncomfortable. Mr. Wolfe needs to decide whether he wants to make movies or theatre, and if he chooses to combine the two, this was certainly not the project to do choose.
Overall, Diane Lane delivers a respectable performance, but her character whines constantly and wants everyone’s sympathy rather than standing strong enough to overcome her problems. Knowing every woman over 40 years old — and probably some under — will swoon over his looks, Richard Gere practically phones in his performance because his looks take care of it. In this movie, he has two voices: his intense voice and his sexy voice. In his intense voice, he constantly shouts in an attempt to build the tension, but it simply comes across as yelling just to yell. In his sexy voice, Gere speaks slowly and clearly. At no time does the actor speak any other way. Still, most women in the theater didn’t notice; their eyes never left the screen.
The screenplay by John Romano (“Intolerable Cruelty”) and Ann Peacock (“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe”) is terrible. The dialogue is forced and the characters are not real. No one speaks excessively about divorce, affairs and lawsuits after meeting someone for five minutes.
Speaking from a male perspective, I will admit that I thought “The Notebook” was a pretty good movie, “When Harry Met Sally” is a fantastic romantic-comedy and “Casablanca” is the most romantic movie ever made and gets me every time Bogart tells Bergman, “We’ll always have Paris.” But “Nights at Rodanthe” was not romantic at all. It tried to be, but failed on many levels, mostly creating characters so unrealistic it is hard to believe in love at all.
While discussing their pasts, Paul tells Adrienne he hasn’t seen his son in a year. Three rows behind me in the theater, a woman gasped loud enough for everyone to hear. This gasp was familiar to me, as I had done the same when I saw Two Face for the first time in “The Dark Knight.” But gasping at any point in this movie seems ridiculous. If you can shriek at Gere speaking in his sexy voice, see “Nights in Rodanthe.” If not, stick to the superior “The Notebook,” or just see “The Dark Knight” again.
1/2 star out of 5
