Boy
meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl which is nothing new in a
Hollywood film and “The Lucky One” follows the theme by the number.
Moving slowly the film gives you plenty of time to contemplate why Zac Efron’s
beard never changes and why do actors think a 5 o’clock shadow makes
them look good and what woman wouldn’t complain about it ‘burning’ them?

This
is the seventh movie based on a book by Nicholas Sparks so if you have
read the books, or seen some of the movies, like “The Vow”, “The
Notebook” or “Message In A Bottle”, you know what is going to happen.

“The
Lucky One” was filmed in Louisiana and the director of photography,
Alar Kivilo, baths it, and the actors, in a golden glow. The screenplay
by Will Fetters follows the numbers of how Hollywood sees a love story
and the music by Mark Isham is romantic. The director, Scott Hicks, puts
the actors through their paces without adding anything to their
performances.

Zac
Efron is stoic, with his dog Zeus way more emotional, while the former
gets many close ups to show his piercing eyes, whether looking at
something or not, and, of course, his mandatory bare chest scene. His
co-star, Taylor Schilling, looks like the very young Jessica Lange and
has a beautiful body shown off in many wet scenes. Unfortunately there
is zero chemistry between Schilling and Efron.

Blythe
Danner, as Schilling’s grandmother, commands the screen each time she
appears and Riley Thomas Stewart as her grandson, Schilling’s son, is a
bit precocious playing chess and the violin as a master of both but
still that adorable movie kid. His father, Jay R. Ferguson, now divorced
from his mother, is a sheriff who bullied his ex-wife and you know,
maybe not how, what will happen to him.

Grandmother and granddaughter own a dog kennel in the woods and the animals are the most entertaining of all.

You will miss nothing you haven’t seen many times before if you miss “The Lucky One”.