The Longest Ride

Starring: Britt Robertson, Scott Eastwood, Alan Alda
Directed By: George Tillman Jr.
Reviewed by Brendan Dousi

[Rating: 2/5]

It wouldn’t be a new year without another Nicholas Sparks novel adaptation making its way to cinemas. Ever since The Notebook was a massive hit in 2004 the ‘sappy romance’ market has been monopolised by these films, seeing ten of Sparks’ novels adapted to film in the last ten years. Unfortunately, none of the others have quite reached the height of quality or popularity that The Notebook garnered. Will The Longest Ride be able to take the crown, or has lazy filmmaking doomed this adaptation to be just as below average as the majority of the Sparks adaptations?

Sophia (Britt Robertson) is just your average college senior art major, she just wants to keep her head down and finish her studies before she can leave it all behind and start her glamorous life interning at a New York art gallery. Fate puts a spanner in the works, however, when her sorority sisters convince her to go to a rodeo to watch the Bull Riders. It’s here that she first locks eyes on the dreamy Luke Collins (Scott Eastwood), a charismatic champion trying to get back in the game after being seriously injured. On their sickeningly romantic first date, Sophia and Luke happen upon a car wreck and rescue an elderly man, Ira Levinson (Alan Alda), and his wicker basket of old love letters. Drawn to the old man, Sophia returns to him every day to read out the letters to him and soon learns that his old romance parallels hers. Soon Sophia and Luke both have a decision to make. Does Sophia give up her chance at the perfect career for the man she loves and does Luke give up on a sport that will almost definitely kill him so that he can live a long and happy life with Sophia?

There’s something I’ve noticed with these films based off of Nicholas Sparks novels. They are usually at least two or three different stories. Stories that actually have some pretty decent weight to them and would make great movies all on their own. Instead, we get some weird amalgamation of them as they’re forced to fit in with each other and struggle to find a basic common theme. What could have been expanded and explored gets glanced over.  Instead of getting a meaty film that explores a Jewish couple in the 40s struggling with the War and the inability to have children, the love story of a girl having to choose between her lover and her career or the story of a struggling athlete risking his life to get back to the top we have all of these elements mashed together and only touch on each in the most basic of ways. As a result, not a lot of the film carries a lot of weight to it. Even at its hefty runtime of over two hours it feels like we never truly get deep enough into any of the stories at play here.

The cast were easily the best thing about this film. Britta Robertson made an adorable lead and her charisma with Eastwood Jr. was fairly palpable. Scott Eastwood did a fine job, but even here his acting chops seemed to be stretched a little. I’m still yet to be convinced he’s much more than a pretty face created in a lab from cloned parts of his father’s brow, nose and eyes. Easily the best here, however, is Alan Alda as ailing and lovesick Ira Levinson. He’s definitely given the most to work with here and it really shows from his performance. Unfortunately, the rest of the film is pure cookie-cutter affair. Lazy filmmaking at its most obvious. With television movie visuals, an uninspired screenplay and utterly forgettable soundtrack, these adaptations prove to be some of the most obvious quick cash-ins in recent cinematic history. That is to say it isn’t enjoyable on some level. We’ve all seen these films before and know exactly what we’re in for.

The Longest Ride is thematically shallow, full of cheesy dialogue and convoluted situations. A pure cookie-cutter film, it’s still a potentially enjoyable experience for those well initiated into the Nicholas Sparks adaptation genre (read: Romance). One of Sparks’ lighter films, if you’re in for something simple and unchallenging for date night this film might just be for you.