By Linah Mohammad/se news editor
For a romantic movie, The Longest Ride wasn’t that bad.
Typical of Nicholas Sparks, the movie was set in North Carolina, featuring white couples in love.
Similar to his style in The Notebook, Sparks relied heavily on flashbacks to tell the story of two couples’ parallel stories separated by time.
Photo courtesy Warner Bros.
Ruth and Ira’s story is set in the ’40s when Ruth (Oona Chaplin) flees Austria’s religious persecution to come to the U.S., and Ira (Jack Huston) is then drafted in the Army during World War II, where he is wounded and becomes infertile.
Sophia and Luke’s story is set in present time. Sophia (Britt Robertson) is an art history major, and Luke (Scott Eastwood) is a professional bull rider.
Both stories are inspiring and realistic. They sound like real stories about real people, contrary to most romantic movies that include fairy tales rather than accurate stories of people.
However, Sparks’ attempts to match the two stories just doesn’t work. A story of war and intercontinental, unconditional love does not compare to a story of people with different interests.
Luke likes bull riding while Sophia doesn’t. Sophia loves contemporary art while Luke absolutely hates it. Big deal.
The movie would have been better off with just the story of Ruth and Ira.
Nonetheless, the movie is rather good. It’s the kind of movie that makes the viewers cry and smile at the same time and forces them to contemplate what it takes to fall in love — sacrifice.
The movie got a bad rap, mainly because of its romantic nature. The Longest Ride would be a bad choice for non-romantic viewers, but romance fans will definitely enjoy it.
It’s a cute, sweet movie. Just what viewers would expect from a Sparks movie.