No Sparks in The Lucky One
FILM
THE LUCKY ONE
Cert 12A | by Stevie Martin
*
THE LUCKY One, the latest Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook) adaptation, amounts to little more than a group of pretty people lurching from one awkward, cringey scene to the next.
Zac Efron is Logan, a man who avoided death in Iraq thanks to a photo of a mysterious stranger. He tracks her down after coming back and starts working at her family-owned kennels but feels he can’t tell her the story of the photo for fear of appearing mental.
Sparks isn’t known for cutting-edge studies of humanity but at least Dear John and The Notebook weren’t without their merits. Not so with The Lucky One. Efron does an alright job with the little he’s given and Taylor Schilling’s Beth isn’t terrible but neither of them exactly set the screen alight. It’s hardly their fault the chemistry doesn’t crackle – the script is so threadbare and replete with cliché they have almost nothing to work with. Unless you’re 15 or just really, really like Zac Efron, avoid this.