The Choice
Directed by: Ross Katz
Written by: Bryan Sipe - Based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks
Starring: Benjamin Walker, Teresa Palmer, Tom Wilkinson, Maggie Grace, Tom Welling, Alexandra Daddario, Sharon Blackwood, Diane Sellers, Brad James, Brett Rice, Marty Stonerock
Drama/Romance - 111 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 2 Feb 2016
Written by: Bryan Sipe - Based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks
Starring: Benjamin Walker, Teresa Palmer, Tom Wilkinson, Maggie Grace, Tom Welling, Alexandra Daddario, Sharon Blackwood, Diane Sellers, Brad James, Brett Rice, Marty Stonerock
Drama/Romance - 111 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 2 Feb 2016
I don’t watch previews. The trailers always give away far too many plot points and if it’s a comedy, the best laugh lines. When my co-workers heard I was going to watch The Choice, we all guessed what the big choice could be. I said it was going to be a girl choosing between two amazing men but there were options concerning where to live, a job, and even abortion. I nailed it on the head concerning the girl weighing the pros and cons of two fellas but it wasn’t that hard; it’s Nicholas Sparks folks!
This is the 11th film adapted from a Sparks novel and if you’ve seen one, then there is a good chance you have already cracked his formula. The real choice referenced in the title is a bit more complex than what I imply, but all the standard Sparks characteristics are here in full. We’re in a scenic part of North Carolina, there is a couple the audience wants to get together but they have a certain set of obstacles to overcome first, and there is a dash of trauma included before the happy or bittersweet ending. It’s not The Notebook, perhaps Sparks’ most beloved film adaptation, and it makes me wonder why I have one strong set of feelings toward that film and feel almost nothing for The Choice.
This is the 11th film adapted from a Sparks novel and if you’ve seen one, then there is a good chance you have already cracked his formula. The real choice referenced in the title is a bit more complex than what I imply, but all the standard Sparks characteristics are here in full. We’re in a scenic part of North Carolina, there is a couple the audience wants to get together but they have a certain set of obstacles to overcome first, and there is a dash of trauma included before the happy or bittersweet ending. It’s not The Notebook, perhaps Sparks’ most beloved film adaptation, and it makes me wonder why I have one strong set of feelings toward that film and feel almost nothing for The Choice.
The stories are very similar; in fact, The Choice is ripe for accusations for being too close to the plot of The Notebook. Travis Shaw (Benjamin Walker, In the Heart of the Sea) is a rough around the edges, small town good ol’ boy who loves nothing better than cruising around Wilmington, North Carolina’s Intracoastal Waterway and grilling some burgers on his backyard grill. Gabby Holland (Teresa Palmer, Warm Bodies) is a no nonsense medical student diligently cramming for her medical boards and preparing for a cozy life with her long-term doctor boyfriend. Travis and Gabby’s first meeting is hostile to say the least as she yells at him to turn down the tunes and he patronizes her with flirty one-liners. Unlike The Notebook, whose protagonists everyone in the audience rooted for, I could care less if Travis and Gabby end up together. In fact, this couple has all the makings of a starter marriage and quickie divorce.
The North Carolina setting is comparable to just about every other Nicholas Sparks film but it is eerily similar to Dawson’s Creek. I half expected to see insanely hyper-articulate teenagers walking around the docks and boats obsessing over their latest crisis. To unnecessarily hard sell the audience into pondering how the small and large choices we make affect our life trajectories, the film begins with Travis’s voiceover pontificating on the obviousness of one thing leading to another. He also tells us he has a huge choice to make. Take a break on whatever it is because the film suddenly jumps back seven years to show us how Travis arrives at his impending decision point. The audience must conduct on the spot movie math a little bit but I assume we jump back to 2008.
After Travis and Gabby’s tumultuous first meeting, she only starts to come around to his charming grin and cheeky flirtations after she sees him with his shirt off taking a wrench to his boat’s outboard motor. Is that all it takes? Travis’s sister, Stephanie (Maggie Grace, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2), sporting uncanny clairvoyant sibling powers, takes one look at Travis and Gabby and says of course they’ll get married. Stephanie is merely saying what everyone in the audience is already thinking. The biggest problem with Stephanie is guessing when it is her on screen. Travis maintains an on-again / off-again fling with Monica (Alexandra Daddario, San Andreas) and Daddario looks exactly like Maggie Grace. I had to wait for scene context before I was sure which girl was in the frame. It’s not just me. I overheard folks in the lobby afterward arguing about who was who. It is quite distracting.
Amidst the gorgeous girls, chiseled abs, and Abercrombie models jumping and twirling around on screen is veteran Tom Wilkinson (Selma) who plays Travis’s dad. I assume director Ross Katz snagged him from when Katz produced 2001 Best Picture nominee In the Bedroom, but Wilkinson is not a distraction here, he lends some more than welcome gravitas to the sometimes stale and far too predictable romance bubbling before us. He also has a role in what must be the most integrated Pentecostal church south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Other supporting characters include two canines who get way more screen time than their cinematic peers and even the Intracoastal Waterway string calmly in the background of more than half the shots.
To emphasize Travis’s carefree, nautical lifestyle, Katz has Director of Photography Alar Kivilo employ wide angle lenses to show off how broad the water is. Katz also uses the weather to do a little story telling for him. Travis and Gabby’s initial meeting, their falling in love, and life’s happy moments are all barbecues and sunshine. Any bump in the road including the climactic twist are doused in rain and even a throttling hurricane. The weather has all the subtlety of a rampaging elephant. The Choice never fully descends into complete schmaltz and forehead-banging implausibility, but it is a Notebook knock-off. I suppose it’s fine for a date movie, but that only applies to a date who wants nothing to do with an intellectual post-film conversation about themes and messages. You’ll fine none of those here.
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