Nights in Rodanthe (2008)
Directed by George C. Wolfe
Written by Anne Peacock, John Romano
Starring Richard Gere, Diane Lane Christopher Meloni, Scott Glenn
Release Date September 26th, 2008
Published September 25th, 2008
Sitting down to watch Nights In Rodanthe I wanted to get into the proper mindset necessary for enjoying a Nicholas Sparks novel adaptation. So, venturing to the theater I brought with me some chocolate bon bons, a carafe of wine and a box of tissues. I slipped on my sensitive guy sweater and went forth to enjoy a good cry while watching Nights In Rodanthe.
The mood enhancements didn't pay off. Despite my proper mindset, Nights In Rodanthe still stunk.
Dr. Paul Flanner (Richard Gere) is the only guest at a scenic North Carolina inn. It's the off season and the good doctor has offered the owner double the cost for a room. The owner however will be out of town and the inn in the hands of a friend, Adrienne Wells. Newly divorced, Adrienne (Diane Lane) is getting a weekend away from her two kids and dealing with a cheating husband (Christopher Meloni) who wants to come home.
Dr. Flanner has a secret as to why he is overpaying for a beach view he isn't interested in. He lost a patient and that patient's husband (Scott Glenn) wants to have a conversation with him. Convenience of plot aside, conditions could not be more perfect for forced romance between the doctor and the faux inn-keeper, especially after a hurricane rolls in.
The most glaring issue I have with Nights In Rodanthe is the inactive characters. Never do either Here or Lane give the impression that they aren't characters in a plot that is pushing them from one scene to the next. The script lays in little details in such obvious ways that small children could count the scenes till they pay off.
George C. Wolf directs the action with a tin ear for dialogue and pacing. His direction shoves Gere and Lane from one scene to the next with little care for actually motivating these characters from one scene to the next. The plot requires them to do certain things, be certain places and pay off those little details and Gere and Lane do things like soldiers just following orders.
Lane and Gere smoldered their way through the snaky thriller Unfaithful back in 2002 and earned Lane an Oscar nomination. In Nights In Rodanthe they try to rekindle that smolder and find only ash. Lane is engaged and emotional and from time to time rouses the movie out of its cliche ridden funk. Gere however, is sleepwalking.
His character is supposed to be in a funk but he's also supposed to come out of it. Heck, there is even dialogue referring to his coming out of this funk. Yet, to watch Gere even the romance and the sex can't bring this guy around. Maybe he, like us, can see the writing on the wall and with a plot already pushing his character from one scene to the next, why should he bother expending any energy.
I can already see the emails explaining to me how this movie was not made for me, I'm not the audience, blah blah blah. I disagree. My credentials on being fair to a movie like Nights In Rodanthe are strong. I liked The Notebook, another Nic Sparks adaptation. I liked Under The Tuscan Sun which was just as wishy washy as this but had Diane Lane in a role where she was an active participant and not a walking plot piece.
I liked both Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movies, definitely not made with me in mind but made with qualities that could be appreciated by any audience. Whomever Nights In Rodanthe was made for are going to be disappointed in this sop-tastic tear puller.
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