Since I’m a romantic at heart, I prefer happy endings to my movies, especially if they’re romances. However, I also dislike manipulated sentimentality and that’s pretty much what you get with “Nights in Rodanthe.” Fans of Nicholas Sparks’ novels will probably like this movie although, typically, novels always prove to be better than a movie adaptation. Adrienne Willis (Diane Lane), a stressed out mother of two, discovers that her estranged husband who had been cheating on her, wants to get back together. To have some space and time to think, she agrees to operate her friend’s bed and breakfast inn on North Carolina’s Outer Banks for a few days. The inn’s only guest is Paul Flanner (Richard Gere), a divorced workaholic doctor, who has come to meet with the family of a patient whose surgery went horribly wrong. Adrienne and Paul are two wounded people who warily become friends and then lovers…….all in the span of two days.
Despite the chemistry between two gorgeous actors and the lush North Carolina coastline, you don’t really get to know Adrienne and Paul very well. So the reality of their meaningful relationship, their ‘grand love,’ seems forced as does the emotion of the tragedy at the end. Lane and Gere share such terrific on-screen rapport that it’s hard to understand why they spend the last third of the movie apart. In fact, Gere is not on-screen; we hear his voice as he narrates Paul’s letters to Adrienne. Although “Nights in Rodanthe” deals with forgiveness and loss, you can wait to rent it on Netflix. 9/28/08
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