The Lucky One

From the great mind of Nicholas Sparks, who brought us The Notebook (Casavetes 2004, USA) and Dear John (Hallström 2010, USA), and director Scott Hicks comes another heart-warming tale of the need of purpose and belonging.

The Lucky One follows US Marine Sergeant Logan Thibault (Zac Efron) who is stationed in Iraq on his third tour and is caught up in a night raid. The next morning he finds a photograph, lying on the ground, of a girl (Taylor Schilling) and on the back a message that says ‘take care’ with a kiss. The girl in the photograph ends up becoming Logan’s guardian angel as he escapes death numerous times. His journey to find the light in this dark hell has just begun as Logan vows that when he arrives home he will find this girl and thank her for keeping him alive. 

This film sets off to a promising start as you expect that it will be filled with drama and heart break, just like Nicholas Spark’s other stories. However, we are given a disturbed ex-marine who is in search of a quieter life, which is exactly what we get. Logan arrives, with his dog, at the local family-run dog kennel and training centre where Beth, the girl in the photo, lives and works with her Nan (Blythe Danner) and son, Ben (Riley Thomas Stewart). Logan takes a job as a helper at the centre and soon a romance blossoms between himself and Beth. 

However, Beth has many complications in her life, including her ex-husband, Keith Clayton (Jay R. Ferguson), who has a hold over her as he threatens to take her son away if she leaves town or sees another man. The film, unfortunately, then takes a very long time to play out the rest of the narrative and leaves the audience unsatisfied at the end as there are no twists or turns in the narrative just a simple conclusion. Logan’s secret about the photo fizzles out and leaves the film struggling to keep the audience gripped.

The film is saved, though, by the great performances given by Zac Efron and Taylor Schilling. Efron gives his troubled character a depth that is broken and mysterious, but also turns out to be sensitive, a good piano player and chess player and, well, pretty good at everything, while Schilling gives a fantastic performance of a vulnerable broken young lady that seems to have aged well past her actual age. Therefore, the film brings us two broken people who are destined, by fate, to become soul mates. The acting, therefore, redeems the film to a point.

This promising film, about purpose and belonging in this world, starts out to be heart wrenching and romantically touching, but soon starts to slow down to a snail’s pace, which unfortunately makes the film a little less exciting to watch. With such high expectation from the fantastic Notebook, The Lucky One does not prove to be quite so lucky after all.  The Lucky One is a film for a rainy day, when you are in the mood for an easy watch that you do not need to pay too much attention to.