THE BEST OF ME

US, 2014, 118 minutes, Colour.
Michelle Monaghan, James Marsden, Luke Bracey, Liana Liberato, Gerald Mc Raney, Caroline Goodall, Clarke Peters, Sebastian Arcelus, Jon Tenny, Sean Bridgers.
Directed by Michael Hoffman.


Since 2000, movie audiences who have a touch of romantic, sentiment and even sentimentality, have been looking forward every couple of years to a film version of one of Nicholas Sparks’ novels. It began with Message in a Bottle, a high-profile film with Paul Newman, Kevin Costner and Robin Wright. Most audiences seem to agree that the best film version and the most popular was The Notebook with Ryan Gosling, Rachel Mc Adams, James Garner, Gena Rowlands.

The films include Dear John, The Lucky One, Night in Rodanthe, The Last Song.

The Best of Me is more complex than many of the other novels and films. Like The Notebook, it has two time focuses, the present and 20 years earlier. We are introduced to the present and that is where the main story develops. But, all the way through, there are many flashbacks to the earlier time, the main characters in their early adulthood, their meeting, in love, the consequences of a number of surprising events.

James Marsden is Dalton, who is first seen on an oil rig, helping fellow-workers when a vast explosion occurs, which knocks him into the water, leaving him there for a long time, when he is eventually rescued and hospitalised, everybody, including himself, amazed that he has survived. We see Michelle Monaghan’s Amanda gazing at the stars, unhappily married, with a teenage son. What do they have in common?

They both received a message telling them that their old friend, Tuck (Gerald Mc Raney) has died and has left his possessions to them. When they meet, there is a hostility between the two which makes us suspicious. They go to Tuck’s house, look at the possessions, discover photos, and the tension lessens between them.

The story in the present is fairly straightforward. The couple have not seen each other for 20 years and, as they meet we find that Dalton has never stopped loving Amanda. Amanda, on the other hand, is married and has a family. Dalton is free, Amanda is not, and there is her son to think about. We follow Amanda’s confrontations with her husband, her support of her son, the reactions of her husband. On the other hand, Dalton, who comes from a poor redneck family dealing drugs, comes up against his hostile father and his brothers.

It is the story in the past that is presented much more interestingly. It shows the background of Dalton and his violent father and his wretched treatment of his son. Amanda, the other hand, comes from an affluent family and is destined to go to college. They meet by accident, form some sort of friendship, Amanda taking a lot of initiative, Dalton rather shy, leaving his home and being taken in by Tuck who is a generous father-figure.

The way the screenplay gradually reveals the details of the past, some of them quite unexpected, gives some attention to the drama and makes the audience interested in what happens to the couple, especially in view of the fact that in the present they have not seen each other for those 20 years.

Plenty of opportunity for smiles, even more opportunity for tears. But, there is a cause of complaint to the writer and the director: the melodrama of the final ten minutes of the film. At first, we think that it might do what seems over the top, then it seems it won’t - then it does, defying a great deal of credibility. But, allowing for this, The Best of Me offers an opportunity for feeling and sentiment.


1. The novels of Nicholas Sparks? The film versions? Expectations? Emotion and sentiment? The focus on the young, protagonists in middle age, older characters?

2. The town, the homes, the rednecks’ house, the drugs? The mansion? Garage? The garden? The rig and the explosion? Hospital? Musical score?

3. The two time-frames, the present and 1992? Indicating? The dynamic of the present drama? The past revealed step-by-step with gradual revelations? The impact of the last 10 minutes, over the top or not?

4. Dalton, on the rig, his work, the explosion, his saving the men, falling into the water, looking at the stars and thinking of a purpose in life? His survival?
The mystery? Hospital, his mission in life? The news of Tuck’s death?

5. Amanda, looking at the stars, her sadness, her relationship with her son, alienation from her husband? The message about Tuck’s death?

6. The meeting, the clash, bitterness, shock? Leading to the flashbacks?

7. The two meeting after 20 years, cold responses, Dalton in love, Amanda and the memories of the past? The inheritance, the lawyer, going to the house, choosing the record, photos, mellowing?

8. The past, Dalton at school, the car, Amanda helping to push, his shyness, his fixing the car? The meeting, the date, his not turning up, going to the tower, their talking? Amanda and her parents, going to Tulane? Dalton, his redneck family, his father’s brutality, his brothers, the torture and the scars? Meeting, talking, kissing, the possibilities?

9. Dalton and Tuck, Dalton leaving home, in the garage, sleeping in the car, Tuck welcoming him, the garden and the memories of his wife, inviting Dalton inside? Tuck and the shooting of the rednecks’ car? The later vengeance? The trashing of the garden? Dalton’s father as a character, cruel, mocking his son, his brothers? The buildup, Dalton going to the prom, the rifle, his cousin coming in the car, the confrontation with his father, the shot, his cousin dying, his arrest, interrogation, going to jail?

10. Amanda, her husband, the decision to leave him, the son and the accident?

11. Dalton, his decision, the future? His father, reappearing, the clash, his brothers? The pursuit, at the level crossing? Their pushing, his death? His final wishes?

12. The hospital, the need for a heart transplant? Audiences wondering whether there would be all the coincidences for Dalton to give his heart to Amanda’s son? The plausibility? The sentiment? Getting the heart to the hospital? The transplant?

13. Dalton’s death, alive in Amanda’s son? Her future?

14. The final sentiment, credibility – and the undermining of aspects of the film?