Movie Review: Nights In Rodanthe (spoiler free)

3 out of 5 stars

YES I ADMIT IT!! I am a big Nicholas Sparks fan. Yes, he is sappy and overemotional and fluffy and manipulates your heart, but damn it I love a good sappy cry (ex 1 - I finally read The Memory Keeper's Daughter last night. Jason walked past me for at least an hour and I was bawling every time. Then I picked Kristen up and howled into her). So when I heard that my second favorite book of his was being made into a movie, I made Jason take me to opening night. He was NOT thrilled about sitting through a sappy chick flick, but did as he was told. *whip cracking*

Previews: I don't know, we walked in just as the trailer for Bolt was finishing and the movie was beginning. Hamster still cracks my shit up. Marley and Me is coming out in December. Since Jason and I, as well as both sets of parents, are retriever families, our lips started wobbling at the idea of it.

I was pretty disappointed with it at first. I hate when movie makers change details from the books for no apparent reason at all (ask anyone who has been at a midnight Harry Potter premiere with me). In the book, Adrienne has two sons and a daughter. In the movie, she only has Danny and Amanda. Her father has passed in the movie, although in the book he is living in a nursing home. The Jill Torrelson story line was nowhere near as detailed and heart wrenching as it played out in the book. And speaking of that, the movie on the whole was nowhere near as serious and heart wrenching as the book. They tried too hard to make it light hearted, and I think that was a disservice to the plot. And they added so many cheesy, hokey things - there is no spirit god room in the book, no corny wild ponies, and in the book they actually boarded up the house BEFORE the hurricane hits, and there is no damage (NOT THAT THEY NOTICE).

The book begins with Amanda all grown up with two sons, and a recent widow, as her husband has just died of testicular cancer. Adrienne, now about sixty, sits Amanda down and retells the story. The movie takes place in the present, as the story unfolds, which I think is one of the main reasons the overall tone was different. It got better as it went on, although they left out far too much of Paul's background story. The timing was all messed up. The bathtub scene had been deleted (Jason was v. disappointed, I promised him boobies).

I did not cry, but I knew what was coming. I heard a lot of gasps and sniffles around the theater, and I heard a lot of people who loved it as we were walking out. It was all right, but I really wish it had been handled the way the book was written. Jason liked it more than he had expected to. The scenery was fantastic, although the Inn looked really different than I expected it to, and that was jarring. My family and I used to take beach vacations to the Carolinas every year, and it is my favorite place, it really make me miss it. And there was a line about Hurricane Bertha, which made me giggle because we were down there for that and got evacuated.

Now, the day I hear that The Rescue is coming out, I will burst into spontaneous tears right there. They have to do it. He named the main character Denise after the producer of Message In A Bottle and The Notebook, and I noticed Denise Di Novi did this one too. So she HAS to do her namesake, right??

And wow. The girl who plays Amanda looks EXACTLY like Shana.