Nights in Rodanthe

Nights in Rodanthe (Richard Gere, Diane Lane, Scott Glenn, James Franco – uncredited) — Two strangers, each of whom sacrificed portions of themselves for the sake of their families or their careers, have a romantic weekend together when her family is out of town.  They each make important choices but remain devoted to each other until death do them part.   Yes, I’m talking about the Bridges of Madison County … only this time it’s in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.   The parallels between former University of Northern Iowa Professor and author Robert Waller’s book and Notebook author’s Nicolas Spark’s story are stunning.  I’m surprised someone didn’t get sued.

Anyway, the movie, Nights at Rodanthe, is a warm, romantic, implausible tale of a successful surgeon’s struggle with the both the death of his patient and the alienation it caused with his physician son and a housewife whose marriage has ended in infidelity but whose husband wants to come home.  By happenstance that only occurs in trashy novels and in sappy movies, they end up together in a stunning bed and breakfast on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  She is taking care of the place late in the season for her best friend.  He is there at the request of the husband whose wife died on the operating table.

Everything else about the plot is inevitable.  Everything about the interplay of these two people is both scripted and predictable.  Everything about these two actors, Richard Gere as Dr. Paul Flanner and Diane Lane as Adrienne Willis, works.  They have now done three movies together, 1984’s The Cotton Club as youngsters (she was 19; he was 35); 2002’s Unfaithful in the sexiest role of Lane’s career; and here.  The chemistry between the two is as good as it gets on screen for two mature stars — she’s now 43 and he’s 59.

Unfortunately, nothing else about the movie works.  It’s not original; it’s not beautiful; it’s not disturbing.  OK, it’s not very good.  But it also isn’t very bad.  If you like Waller’s and Spark’s books along with those short romantic novels that my wife enjoys, the movie is worth the price of a day ticket but not Nights at Rodanthe.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *