Techtite DVD Reviews

Nights in Rodanthe

I'm a college graduate, and yet I must confess I couldn't resist googling "Rodanthe" to see what the big deal was; specifically, the "Nights" in Rodanthe. It's a picturesque location, to be sure, with its own page on Wikipedia. Yet even Wiki mentions little about the nights in Rodanthe, nor is it clear why the nights are more title worthy than the days. Perhaps the answer is as simple as this: this story refers to night, because of all the men it will put to sleep.

This is the tale of Adrienne Willis (Diane Lane), who has a jerk as a husband and a daughter who doesn't understand her. For most mothers, this would be "Monday morning," though for Adrienne it's an excuse to get out of town and manage an inn for a friend. Does this ever really happen; someone's marriage is in crisis and their BFF says, "Hey, I can see you're an emotional train wreck so why not act as manager of my inn when I'm out of town"...?

Though I digress...Adreienne goes to the Rodanthe inn to unwind and by strange coincidence the inn has only one tenant, and by an even more startling coincidence, the 50-something man is not balding with a pot belly, and is in fact a total hunk that resembles Richard Gere. Paul Flanner (Gere) has similar marriage and children woes. Adrienne and Paul have a romantic weekend, as if you needed to be told that last part.

So what's with the title? If this answers anything: it's the same title as the original novel, written by Nicholas Sparks; the same author of novels-turned-movies like Message in a Bottle and The Notebook. Just by mentioning those two movies, I can hear the thunderous wails of many a male reader dragged to this movie, and they're all saying..."Uh oh!"

This may sound like a spoiler, though it is not. If I were to tell you a movie was written by Stephen King, it would not be a "spoiler" to tell you that the movie was a thriller. Nor would it be a "spoiler" to say that the typical George Lucas movie stars "Jedi." So let me just give this notice to all women who wish to see this movie; any man who has ever been dragged to a Nicholas Sparks movie will approach Nights in Rodanthe with a certain amount of dread. Sparks has an apparent "writer's allergy" to the phrase and they all lived happily ever after, so when he is behind the latest chick flick, expect every effort to give the ladies in the audience a good cry, even if it means blowing up the Earth to do so.

At least the cast of this movie was well chosen; not well chosen enough to recommend the movie, though enough to keep men in the audience entertained. After starring together in two earlier movies (1984's "The Cotton Club," and 2002's Unfaithful), Diane Lane and Richard Gere have excellent chemistry together. This is one of those romance movies where any faults with the romance is due to the writer, not the actors. In fact; had this story's emphasis been on romance instead of rubber-stamp tear tactics, this film might've become the next Sleepless in Seattle, and not...well, frankly, the next "Notebook."

Will men hate women for taking them to this movie? No; they'll be too busy teasing them afterwards, with many unavoidable nitpicks. Like how this flimsy looking "inn" has allegedly stood against many hurricanes, even though it looks fragile enough to be toppled with a strong breeze. Then there's the serious age gap of the stars: while Lane and Gere's age gap stood the test of time in two earlier films, Gere is now 59 and Lane is 43, making the gap a little too obvious. There are also some terribly sappy one-liners, which are romantic only to women desperate for a man to say anything romantic. "When I write to you, I feel your breath"...? That's what counts as romantic banter these days?

Then there's the hurricane. Before anyone thinks I'm spoiling too much here; the hurricane is what forces these two love birds to stay together in Rodanthe. It must've been an acceptable plot device in a 2002 novel, though as a fall 2008 film, is this the best time for a movie about deadly hurricanes? Speaking as someone who was terribly fearful of Hurricane Ike, there is some terribly poor timing at work here. Let's just say that releasing a movie about hurricanes so close to an actual hurricane is either a cheap sales gimmick, a foolish mistake, or, quite frankly, both.

In conclusion, Nights in Rodanthe is the perfect metaphor for current Hollywood, which seems in a bit of a "rut" of its own these days. It's time Hollywood divorced itself from Nicholas Sparks, and started making decent date movies again, preferably, with a less cynical and far more romantic author. Remember Somewhere in Seattle...? When Harry Met Sally...? A Walk in the Clouds...? Those are the sorts of date movies that are on married couple's DVD shelves and watched again and again. Nights in Rodanthe is the sort of movie that collects dust on a grocery store rental shelf. I'd love to finally see a date movie again that I can put alongside When Harry Met Sally. As long as Hollywood stays "married" to Sparks, that's unlikely to happen anytime soon.

	Final Rating : Near Miss. If a woman wants to drag you to this tear jerker just so she can enjoy a good cry, give her a peeled onion, and stay home.
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Nights in Rodanthe

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