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Nights in Rodanthe
Warner Bros. // PG-13 // February 10, 2009
List Price: $35.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
Nicholas Sparks has provided a veritable wealth of romantic storytelling. My wife collects his work like they were comic books, and his popularity has only grown since A Walk to Remember and The Notebook were turned into major motion pictures. Nights in Rodanthe is the latest film constructed from one of the famed author's books. However, it seems that if you're familiar with the work of Sparks, you're most likely going to be able to predict what's in store. So the question is, if the same basic story has already been told, does it really deserve to be told again?
Adrienne is a mother that's still trying to adjust to not having a man around the house. Although she's been split from her husband for seven months, she's still juggling with the learning curve of trying to take care of a teenage daughter, as well as a ten year old son, all on her own.
Things may be tough for her, but she's about to get some much needed time to herself. Her ex is going to be taking the kids away for the weekend, and she's promised to watch a beach front property for her friend while she goes out of town. Rooms at this particular locale with a gorgeous view of the ocean are available for rent, and the only thing Adrienne will have to work around during her stay, is a single occupant that's been booked.
Right before she's off to catch her ferry boat, her ex drops a pretty big bomb on her. He delivers a pretty fool hearted 'I love you and want you back' speech, but Adrienne brushes him off with a promise to discuss it when she gets back. She stood her ground fairly well when approached with this dilemma, but the difficulty of life has her thinking that maybe it wouldn't be a terrible idea, despite knowing what kind of a man he is.
The only guest staying at the beach front property, Paul, comes into the picture with mysterious intrigue. At first he doesn't seem to want be bothered. He simply wants to be put in his room and left alone. Yet when Adrienne prepares dinner for her guest, he tells her that he doesn't want to be alone.
Predictably, Adrienne and Paul hit it off. They're falling for each other, and pretty hard at that. The proposal from Adrienne's ex could almost be forgotten about completely, but her angst filled teen daughter won't settle for anything less than a happy family reunion.
Once the ball of romance begins to roll, Paul's back story begins to suggest to Adrienne that he has some baggage that needs to be worked out. He's left everything behind, including a son, to run away from a botched cosmetic surgery.
If you were to come up to me and tell me the story of Adrienne and Paul as real people, I'd be absolutely amazed by their tale of love. One is torn between a failed marriage that her children wants to repair, and the other is running from the guilt of a death, and the judgment from his own flesh and blood. To meet under such circumstances and find each other at the critical crossroad in their lives, would make almost anyone believe in fate.
However, that's not the case. This is a movie that's been crafted from an author that loves to put unlikely candidates in a relationship, throw them in the grinder, and see what happens. We've seen this basic premise with A Walk to Remember and The Notebook.
The titles that were already brought to the big screen from the Sparks library actually felt like they had a worthwhile story to tell, but this film ultimately fails to leave the audience with the same after taste.
The previous films inspired by Sparks's novels took place over a lengthy period of time, and the heartbreaking plot twists were horrifying tools that were meant to pluck on the heartstrings of everyone in the audience.
In Nights of Rodanthe, the blossoming love between Adrienne and Paul is magnificent to watch, but with a majority of the film only taking place over a few days, the connection or impact I should have had for these characters was minimal at best. The plot twist that was meant to be bittersweet was even a bit of a letdown.
Despite the fact Nights in Rodanthe can't hold a candle to previous film translations from the famous author, there are still redeemable qualities to be had.
Diane Lane and Richard Gere are hardly strangers when it comes to steaming up the big screen together, and watching them fall in love is a joy once again. Their acting capabilities truly shine. They seem like real people that are falling for each other hard, and you'd be hard pressed to believe otherwise. Their on-screen chemistry is terrific, and if you're a fan of seeing these two together, then you're not going to be disappointed.
I've mentioned that Nights in Rodanthe didn't feel like it was a story worth being told, because it's already been done a couple of times in a much better way. That's not to say you'll leave the film empty handed, as there are lasting benefits to Adrienne and Paul's relationship that will put a smile on your face. Unfortunately, I also finished this film with the unshakeable notion that I'm now officially tired of seeing the name 'Sparks' when it comes to film. This film marked the moment for me, where I could say, "I'm so over it." If you don't know what I mean by this, just say the name 'Shyamalan', and you'll know exactly what I mean.
If a great story has already been told, especially more than once, than why do it again? I think the answer is clear. Anyone in Hollywood knows there's money to be made. Think about it, you have a film starring Diane Lane and Richard Gere for their third time, and they're bringing a Nicholas Sparks novel to life! You can hear the cash registers chiming when you see such a formula, can't you?
Nights in Rodanthe isn't a bad film by any means, it's just highly predictable, and the overall experience is average at best. If you're a die-hard romantic tragedy fan, or a Nicholas Sparks fan for that matter, you're probably going to think there was justice brought to the theatrical translation. For the rest of us that are merely waiting in the wings for a positive movie going experience, you may find yourself at a loss. There are certain aspects about this film that work, but you're more than likely going to feel like you've seen it all before.
What I have grown to appreciate in the first Nicholas Sparks novels turned film, was that they were a more than welcome departure from the usual chick flick, albeit depressing ones. I haven't read every book Nicholas Sparks has ever written, and I'm told that he does differentiate the story he's trying to tell from time to time. As far as cinema goes though, I'm fairly tired of seeing the same thing come from his work, again and again. Hopefully the next go round will be one that's not so predictable.
Video
Nights in Rodanthe is presented in a resolution of 1080p, encoded using VC-1. At a quick glance, this is an incredibly pleasing presentation. The colors are well saturated and stand out, outdoor scenes can be reminiscent of looking out of a window, and the image looks just so darn clean!
I can't comment on the original theatrical presentation as I've never seen this film before, but the immensely pleasing product raises a few questions and concerns.
There's no film grain here that I can mention, and most of the film seems to have a complete lack of extremely fine detail, such as with facial features. I'm not sure if this is an attempt at Hollywood trying to make their leading cast members look younger than they really are, but the effect gets more and more noticeable as you watch the film. Is this DNR? I really want to say it's probably not, because there's plenty of detail to be seen in clothing and things of the like, but it's not an appealing look either way.
There are also a few night shots that look murky and noisy, and there were some minor instances of noise that appeared in solid colors that were shaded. An easy place to spot this, is when Diane Lane is wearing red.
Other than the issues of noise and 'clean' skin, the only other complaint I have is the fact that there's many occasions where the sharpness is a tad soft. Other than that, the color levels are solid and even impressive at times, and the contrast between blacks and bright areas is fantastic.
If you absolutely have to have this film, then Blu-ray is undoubtedly the way to go. Although it's a far cry from being a great looking Blu-ray title, it's undoubtedly leaps and bounds better than what the DVD could ever possibly imagine to offer.
Audio
The main audio track we have is a Dolby Digital 5.1 track. You read that right. This is not a lossless track!
To be completely fair, Nights in Rodanthe isn't a film that one threatens to kill themselves over if the audio isn't lossless. It's not really a necessity.
However, when the standard for the format is basically 'give us lossless or go home', why do we still have to endure lossy audio? A Blu-ray costs more money, so shouldn't you be getting the best possible presentation in both video and audio quality? It just boggles the mind.
That's not to say the lossy track sounds bad. I know, I know. Some rep from the company is probably cursing me out while reading this, asking why I'm crying about not having any bread when I have a filet mignon in the oven. It's just the principal of the matter, man!
For the most part, this movie is dialogue driven. The dialogue sounds flawless, so there are no complaints there. The problem with this track is that there's no sense of auditory depth or directionality. There's a pretty important scene involving a storm that gets the surrounds working pretty impressively, but other than that, the rest of the film lacks an engaging auditory experience. The soundtrack itself doesn't make great use of the surround either.
It sounds good enough for what it is, but this is a fairly disappointing audio track for reasons that go beyond an encode.
Extras
Alternate Scenes with Director Commentary - Unlike most other 'deleted scenes' featurettes available on other releases, the director commentary here comes with the package, like it or not. You won't be able to see the scenes without it. It's fantastic when a director provides commentaries for deleted material, but not when you're left without the option to turn it on or off. The scenes themselves aren't really anything to write home about either.
The Nature of Love: Richard Gere, Diane Lane and Director George C. Wolfe Recall - What Attracted Them to This Story and Remember Their Favorite Movie Romances - This tries to pass itself off as a behind the scenes featurette, but ends up playing the part of an infomercial instead.
A Time for Love: Keeping Up with Nicholas Sparks - Profiles the Bestselling Author - Although I'm tired of being fed romances that have a tendency to be more depressing than uplifting, I've got to say, Nicholas Sparks is a pretty cool guy. He's a joy to listen to, and you can tell he really enjoys his work.
An Intimate Look at In Rodanthe with Singer/Songwriter Emmylou Harris - Not an incredibly appealing featurette, but the score (despite sounding less than impressive on the lossy audio track) was impressive, and we can see what Harris went through to provide such a fitting musical suite for Nights in Rodanthe.
Also included is a music video for Gavin Rossdale's Love Remains the Same, as well as a digital copy of the film.
There's not really a great amount of information here. In Nature of Love, we get to hear why the major players involved were attracted to the project, but I think a lot of people would just die to see the chemistry Gere and Lane may still have behind the scenes. Unfortunately, most of the production aspects of the film are missing, and this is mostly due to the lack of a real commentary track. What the heck is going on with the WB lately?
Overall
Although this film has some fantastic acting and chemistry between Lane and Gere, the rest of Rodanthe's formula is becoming stale, nothing more than a product of over exposure to the works of Sparks. It's simply to the point where his work is becoming a cliché in and of itself. This may be because Hollywood hasn't recognized the repeat trend, or perhaps it's because Sparks has trouble diversifying his writing. I can't say for certain, as I haven't read anything from his catalogue.
Whatever the case may be, the story as translated to film just doesn't work as well as the prior efforts we've already seen. There were some incredibly touching moments in the other Sparks films that would stick with almost anyone that watched, but Rodanthe offers close to nothing that could even remotely be considered memorable, with the exception of the acting, of course.
I can only recommend a very solid rent it rating. For those of you that were fans of the book, I doubt you're going to be disappointed. My wife is a huge fan of this book, and she was more than satisfied with the end result. Even she would admit however, that the films already released were far superior.
To top it all off, we have a very nice (but not great) video presentation, but the lack of a lossless audio track, as well as fairly disappointing extras, are enough of a reason to not spend your money on this title in the form of a purchase.
Adrienne is a mother that's still trying to adjust to not having a man around the house. Although she's been split from her husband for seven months, she's still juggling with the learning curve of trying to take care of a teenage daughter, as well as a ten year old son, all on her own.
Things may be tough for her, but she's about to get some much needed time to herself. Her ex is going to be taking the kids away for the weekend, and she's promised to watch a beach front property for her friend while she goes out of town. Rooms at this particular locale with a gorgeous view of the ocean are available for rent, and the only thing Adrienne will have to work around during her stay, is a single occupant that's been booked.
Right before she's off to catch her ferry boat, her ex drops a pretty big bomb on her. He delivers a pretty fool hearted 'I love you and want you back' speech, but Adrienne brushes him off with a promise to discuss it when she gets back. She stood her ground fairly well when approached with this dilemma, but the difficulty of life has her thinking that maybe it wouldn't be a terrible idea, despite knowing what kind of a man he is.
The only guest staying at the beach front property, Paul, comes into the picture with mysterious intrigue. At first he doesn't seem to want be bothered. He simply wants to be put in his room and left alone. Yet when Adrienne prepares dinner for her guest, he tells her that he doesn't want to be alone.
Predictably, Adrienne and Paul hit it off. They're falling for each other, and pretty hard at that. The proposal from Adrienne's ex could almost be forgotten about completely, but her angst filled teen daughter won't settle for anything less than a happy family reunion.
Once the ball of romance begins to roll, Paul's back story begins to suggest to Adrienne that he has some baggage that needs to be worked out. He's left everything behind, including a son, to run away from a botched cosmetic surgery.
If you were to come up to me and tell me the story of Adrienne and Paul as real people, I'd be absolutely amazed by their tale of love. One is torn between a failed marriage that her children wants to repair, and the other is running from the guilt of a death, and the judgment from his own flesh and blood. To meet under such circumstances and find each other at the critical crossroad in their lives, would make almost anyone believe in fate.
However, that's not the case. This is a movie that's been crafted from an author that loves to put unlikely candidates in a relationship, throw them in the grinder, and see what happens. We've seen this basic premise with A Walk to Remember and The Notebook.
The titles that were already brought to the big screen from the Sparks library actually felt like they had a worthwhile story to tell, but this film ultimately fails to leave the audience with the same after taste.
The previous films inspired by Sparks's novels took place over a lengthy period of time, and the heartbreaking plot twists were horrifying tools that were meant to pluck on the heartstrings of everyone in the audience.
In Nights of Rodanthe, the blossoming love between Adrienne and Paul is magnificent to watch, but with a majority of the film only taking place over a few days, the connection or impact I should have had for these characters was minimal at best. The plot twist that was meant to be bittersweet was even a bit of a letdown.
Despite the fact Nights in Rodanthe can't hold a candle to previous film translations from the famous author, there are still redeemable qualities to be had.
Diane Lane and Richard Gere are hardly strangers when it comes to steaming up the big screen together, and watching them fall in love is a joy once again. Their acting capabilities truly shine. They seem like real people that are falling for each other hard, and you'd be hard pressed to believe otherwise. Their on-screen chemistry is terrific, and if you're a fan of seeing these two together, then you're not going to be disappointed.
I've mentioned that Nights in Rodanthe didn't feel like it was a story worth being told, because it's already been done a couple of times in a much better way. That's not to say you'll leave the film empty handed, as there are lasting benefits to Adrienne and Paul's relationship that will put a smile on your face. Unfortunately, I also finished this film with the unshakeable notion that I'm now officially tired of seeing the name 'Sparks' when it comes to film. This film marked the moment for me, where I could say, "I'm so over it." If you don't know what I mean by this, just say the name 'Shyamalan', and you'll know exactly what I mean.
If a great story has already been told, especially more than once, than why do it again? I think the answer is clear. Anyone in Hollywood knows there's money to be made. Think about it, you have a film starring Diane Lane and Richard Gere for their third time, and they're bringing a Nicholas Sparks novel to life! You can hear the cash registers chiming when you see such a formula, can't you?
Nights in Rodanthe isn't a bad film by any means, it's just highly predictable, and the overall experience is average at best. If you're a die-hard romantic tragedy fan, or a Nicholas Sparks fan for that matter, you're probably going to think there was justice brought to the theatrical translation. For the rest of us that are merely waiting in the wings for a positive movie going experience, you may find yourself at a loss. There are certain aspects about this film that work, but you're more than likely going to feel like you've seen it all before.
What I have grown to appreciate in the first Nicholas Sparks novels turned film, was that they were a more than welcome departure from the usual chick flick, albeit depressing ones. I haven't read every book Nicholas Sparks has ever written, and I'm told that he does differentiate the story he's trying to tell from time to time. As far as cinema goes though, I'm fairly tired of seeing the same thing come from his work, again and again. Hopefully the next go round will be one that's not so predictable.
Video
Nights in Rodanthe is presented in a resolution of 1080p, encoded using VC-1. At a quick glance, this is an incredibly pleasing presentation. The colors are well saturated and stand out, outdoor scenes can be reminiscent of looking out of a window, and the image looks just so darn clean!
I can't comment on the original theatrical presentation as I've never seen this film before, but the immensely pleasing product raises a few questions and concerns.
There's no film grain here that I can mention, and most of the film seems to have a complete lack of extremely fine detail, such as with facial features. I'm not sure if this is an attempt at Hollywood trying to make their leading cast members look younger than they really are, but the effect gets more and more noticeable as you watch the film. Is this DNR? I really want to say it's probably not, because there's plenty of detail to be seen in clothing and things of the like, but it's not an appealing look either way.
There are also a few night shots that look murky and noisy, and there were some minor instances of noise that appeared in solid colors that were shaded. An easy place to spot this, is when Diane Lane is wearing red.
Other than the issues of noise and 'clean' skin, the only other complaint I have is the fact that there's many occasions where the sharpness is a tad soft. Other than that, the color levels are solid and even impressive at times, and the contrast between blacks and bright areas is fantastic.
If you absolutely have to have this film, then Blu-ray is undoubtedly the way to go. Although it's a far cry from being a great looking Blu-ray title, it's undoubtedly leaps and bounds better than what the DVD could ever possibly imagine to offer.
Audio
The main audio track we have is a Dolby Digital 5.1 track. You read that right. This is not a lossless track!
To be completely fair, Nights in Rodanthe isn't a film that one threatens to kill themselves over if the audio isn't lossless. It's not really a necessity.
However, when the standard for the format is basically 'give us lossless or go home', why do we still have to endure lossy audio? A Blu-ray costs more money, so shouldn't you be getting the best possible presentation in both video and audio quality? It just boggles the mind.
That's not to say the lossy track sounds bad. I know, I know. Some rep from the company is probably cursing me out while reading this, asking why I'm crying about not having any bread when I have a filet mignon in the oven. It's just the principal of the matter, man!
For the most part, this movie is dialogue driven. The dialogue sounds flawless, so there are no complaints there. The problem with this track is that there's no sense of auditory depth or directionality. There's a pretty important scene involving a storm that gets the surrounds working pretty impressively, but other than that, the rest of the film lacks an engaging auditory experience. The soundtrack itself doesn't make great use of the surround either.
It sounds good enough for what it is, but this is a fairly disappointing audio track for reasons that go beyond an encode.
Extras
Alternate Scenes with Director Commentary - Unlike most other 'deleted scenes' featurettes available on other releases, the director commentary here comes with the package, like it or not. You won't be able to see the scenes without it. It's fantastic when a director provides commentaries for deleted material, but not when you're left without the option to turn it on or off. The scenes themselves aren't really anything to write home about either.
The Nature of Love: Richard Gere, Diane Lane and Director George C. Wolfe Recall - What Attracted Them to This Story and Remember Their Favorite Movie Romances - This tries to pass itself off as a behind the scenes featurette, but ends up playing the part of an infomercial instead.
A Time for Love: Keeping Up with Nicholas Sparks - Profiles the Bestselling Author - Although I'm tired of being fed romances that have a tendency to be more depressing than uplifting, I've got to say, Nicholas Sparks is a pretty cool guy. He's a joy to listen to, and you can tell he really enjoys his work.
An Intimate Look at In Rodanthe with Singer/Songwriter Emmylou Harris - Not an incredibly appealing featurette, but the score (despite sounding less than impressive on the lossy audio track) was impressive, and we can see what Harris went through to provide such a fitting musical suite for Nights in Rodanthe.
Also included is a music video for Gavin Rossdale's Love Remains the Same, as well as a digital copy of the film.
There's not really a great amount of information here. In Nature of Love, we get to hear why the major players involved were attracted to the project, but I think a lot of people would just die to see the chemistry Gere and Lane may still have behind the scenes. Unfortunately, most of the production aspects of the film are missing, and this is mostly due to the lack of a real commentary track. What the heck is going on with the WB lately?
Overall
Although this film has some fantastic acting and chemistry between Lane and Gere, the rest of Rodanthe's formula is becoming stale, nothing more than a product of over exposure to the works of Sparks. It's simply to the point where his work is becoming a cliché in and of itself. This may be because Hollywood hasn't recognized the repeat trend, or perhaps it's because Sparks has trouble diversifying his writing. I can't say for certain, as I haven't read anything from his catalogue.
Whatever the case may be, the story as translated to film just doesn't work as well as the prior efforts we've already seen. There were some incredibly touching moments in the other Sparks films that would stick with almost anyone that watched, but Rodanthe offers close to nothing that could even remotely be considered memorable, with the exception of the acting, of course.
I can only recommend a very solid rent it rating. For those of you that were fans of the book, I doubt you're going to be disappointed. My wife is a huge fan of this book, and she was more than satisfied with the end result. Even she would admit however, that the films already released were far superior.
To top it all off, we have a very nice (but not great) video presentation, but the lack of a lossless audio track, as well as fairly disappointing extras, are enough of a reason to not spend your money on this title in the form of a purchase.
-About the Author- Michael Zupan is primarily a film guy, but has a variety of places where you can enjoy his work otherwise. Check Bytesizeimpressions.com for video game op-ed pieces and podcasts, and be sure to check out the sister site, Byte-Size Cinema, linked up top. This writer also contributes significantly to in-print magazines such as Minecraft Explorer and Fortnite Explorer!
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