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The Lucky One

The Lucky One: Cheesy Chick Flick

  • Taylor SchillingZac Efron
  • DramaRomance
  • Scott Hicks
reviewed by
Yasmin Shehab
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The Lucky One: Cheesy Chick Flick

We’ve all seen, at the very least, one Nicholas Sparks film which is
enough to figure out the formula that has probably made him into a millionaire
by now. While they’re usually super cheesy, they sweep you along in a torrent
of emotion. You laugh, you cry, you swoon and you leave the cinema happy. But
even with adjusted expectations, The
Lucky One
isn’t particularly entertaining.

The film is completely centred on the romance and so there’s absolutely
nothing to distract from Zac Efron’s zombie-like state. Or from the film’s
frightfully cheesy dialogue. Or from the fact that it packs a whole hoard of clichés
into an hour and a half in a desperate plea to activate our tear ducts.

Efron plays Logan, a marine stationed in some Arab country (turns out to
be Iraq) fighting the scary brown men. The morning after an ambush, he finds a
picture of a blonde chick with the words ‘keep safe’ on the back. He carries
the picture around with him everywhere, like a talisman, and lo and behold, he
cheats death several times while a ton of people around him die. Traumatized,
he returns to America with the aim of finding the girl in the picture and
thanking her for being his guardian angel. He tracks her down, is unable to
show her the picture or tell her why he’s there, takes a job near her and they
soon fall in love. The blonde girl turns out to be a single mum by the name of
Beth (Schilling) who has an abusive ex who keeps threatening to take their kid
away from her and who doesn’t like the fact that she’s seeing Logan.

Out of the two leads, Taylor Schilling is definitely the least offensive,
though Blythe Danner, as Beth’s grandmother, despite being the most watchable person
on screen, was a rather head scratching piece of casting. Beth’s mother would
be understandable but grandmother? Either she’s found the fountain of youth or
Beth looks far older than she actually is. Schilling’s character fluctuates
between brave, selfless mother and helpless female, both of which only require
her to stand around looking pretty which isn’t exactly difficult for someone
who looks like Katy Perry’s blonde twin. All in all, she’s pleasantly bland.
Efron on the other hand looks like a buff, tanned corpse. His character is
supposed to be grieving for all the friends he lost on duty but what we get
from Efron is a complete lack of emotion. When he’s not showing off just how
nice he is by playing with Beth’s kid, he’s standing around blank faced, looking
stiff. Resembling a teenager isn’t helping his cause much either.

The lack of tension is what really does the film in though. The Notebook had a sense of urgency
about it. You genuinely rooted for the couple to be together even though they
weren’t necessarily pleasant characters. Part of that was Amy McAdams and Ryan Gosling’s
chemistry which Efron and Schilling lack but on the other hand there was an
actual obstacle keeping them apart. In The
Lucky One
, their troubles are more hiccups than roadblocks.

This film is really only recommended for die hard Nicholas Sparks fans
or people who don’t mind staring at beautiful actors, sun drenched scenery and
a gaggle of adorable dogs in lieu of a decent story. Stay away if you’re prone
to incessant eye rolling.

Like This? Try

The Notebook, Dear John, The Vow

360 Tip

Abbie Cornish and Katie Cassidy tried out for the female lead.

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