The Lucky one is not an appropriate film for a testosterone-based audience backed by protein shakes and a sea of raging hormones. It is a film for puppy-adoring, romance-loving, candyfloss-fan-females, in other words, me. The film is dripping with so much pink and red heart moments that I am sure someone put cupid in a blender and poured him over the script. It presents us with feelings of isolation, conflict, soul-searching and of course, the notion that true love really does conquer all.
The author Nicholas Sparks (who previously brought us Dear John and The Notebook) came back with his next big hit. His same-titled 14th novel was turned into a movie and Sparks did what Sparks did best-try to take over the world, or at least the hearts of every female, by bringing a perfect romance to the table.
The film has everything a good romance should have-beautiful people (queue Zac Efron) in beautiful places.
Although Efron’s character, Logan, seems wooden in places, it is only because he is the strong, silent type burdened with the hauntings of what he saw in battle (sigh). He thinks the only thing that kept him alive on the battlefield and every struggle in his (beautiful) life is a photo of a sickeningly perfect blonde he saw on the ground of said battlefield.
For the first half of the movie, Logan (Efron) searches for the same sickeningly perfect blonde. For the second half of the movie, Efron wears fantastically fitted shirts that highlight his fantastic biceps. Oh, and also he meets the sickeningly perfect blonde.
But the sickeningly perfect blonde, who’s character is borderline annoying (perhaps I’m just jealous of the opportunities her role gave her, such as touching is fantastic biceps) mistakes him for someone who wants to work at her dog grooming business. The cute-as-a-button dogs are almost as cute as the cute-as-a-button cast. Logan is the pillar of support she needs to deal with the everyday struggles and challenges she faces in her life.
When talking about the book and film, Sparks said “They’re overcoming obstacles, as people often do in the real word, to first become friends and then to trust each other and then to fall in love. This is a film that portrays that realistic journey towards a strong relationship very faithfully.”
The producer said that the reason the books and films were so popular is because people think “that could happen! It could happen to me!” What a wonderful idea. This film obviously brings a feeling of escapism from everyday life.
The bad point to this film is that there is not much tension or confrontation. The good points to this film are that we see Zac Efron’s muscly arms, shoulders and generally good (really good) physique. (Queue to all film writers-if all else fails, shoot Ryan Gosling or similar standard hottie shirtless).
The climax of the film is when Zac Efron is shirtless in skin tight jockeys, I mean, when he finally gets it on with the sickeningly perfect blonde and discovers that love is the strongest force known to mankind.
Although not quite as good as the iconic (untouchable, sob) The Notebook, it is still a perfect story that captures the fragility of a person’s self-worth compared with the strength of, wait for it, true love.
