NIGHTS IN RODANTHE
US, 2008, 97 minutes, Colour.
Diane Lane, Richard Gere, Scott Glenn, Mae Whitman, Charlie Tahan, Pablo Schreiber.
Directed by George C. Wolfe.
Nicholas Sparks has written some very popular best sellers which are highly emotional. Several have been made into films, Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, The Notebook. Such novels and films are easy to look down on as romantic tearjerkers – and they are – but who says we can't like this playing on our emotions? (It's only 'manipulation' when you don't approve of it!)
Adrienne, the mother of a critical teenage daughter and a bookish 10 year old son, grieving the recent death of a beloved father and upset that her husband has walked out on his family for another woman but who is now pleading to be taken back, helps out a close friend at her guest house resort on the North Carolina coast for the weekend. A hurricane is strengthening in the Atlantic. But, that will be nothing to the emotional storm she will experience. The only guest is a doctor, Paul, who is fighting a malpractice lawsuit and whose doctor son is alienated from him and has gone to work for the poor in Ecuador. Even though you can make an educated guess – or, really, any old reasonable guess - as to what is going to happen (and, by and large, you will be right), most will not be able to avoid a tear or two (or more).
Time must be passing. Richard Gere plays Paul and James Franco plays his son. Gere will be 60 in 2009. On the other hand, time is not passing so fast that the plot is not similar to many that we have seen so often over the decades, and will probably see many times more.
But, on the whole, this is Diane Lane's film. She makes her character more interesting and easy to identify with than many other actresses, ordinary in her life and troubles, but with that something extra which makes her a committed mother despite everything and open to more vitality in her life. Richard Gere is, well, Richard Gere, exerting his charm as usual even though he has to learn to be a more humane doctor in his dealings with people. There is a strong sequence with Scott Glenn as the bereaved husband of 43 years whose wife has died inexplicably on the operating table.
And the North Carolina scenery is magnificent even if the prospect of hurricanes is daunting.
1.An old-fashioned love story, love, death, grief? 21st century style?
2.The feelings, sentiment? For older audiences? Identifying with the characters, their experiences?
3.The North Carolina locations, the island, the coast, the long roads, the ferries, the beaches? The horses? The eccentric house? The isolation? The contrast with the town? The hurricane threatening, the rain? The musical score?
4.The title, evocation for Adrienne, for Paul? Life-changing?
5.Adrienne, the opening memories of her father, his death and her grief? Her age, married for many years, her husband’s walking out? With Amanda and her difficulties? With her placid son? Getting her children ready for their father? The father and his speech, his clichéd life, leaving, the younger woman, wanting to come back? The pressure on Adrienne? The boy for his mother, Amanda for her father? Blaming her mother? Touches of bitterness? Yet their mother’s desperate love for them?
6.The situation for the weekend, Jean, going off, the meeting, meeting men, the phone calls to Adrienne? The house, Jean’s inheritance? Adrienne driving, setting up the house for the visitor, feeling flustered, the phone calls to the children? Paul and his arrival, settling him in, talking, cooking, the meal, Paul coming into the kitchen, sharing the wine?
7.Paul as a doctor, his wife walking out, alienation from his son, his son’s anger? Working with him for the operation? Walking out? The operation, the death of the woman, the anaesthetic? The staff’s reaction? Paul not speaking to the husband? The lawsuit, his coming to stay for the weekend, wanting to visit the family? Issues of blame? Driving to the house, the son’s anger and kicking the car? His father and the visit, the father telling the story, forty-three years of marriage, his devotion to his wife, the cyst, her wanting the operation? Adrienne listening, giving advice to Paul? Paul going with Adrienne, the discussions with Robert Torrelson? The sharing? Paul and his learning what was needed to deal with people?
8.Paul and Adrienne, their loneliness, the storm, the shutters, her art? Their support, the sexual liaison, depending on each other, sharing, this turning to love?
9.Paul and his going, travelling to Ecuador, working with his son, the visualising of this work? The rapport with his son? The letters to Adrienne? His changing?
10.Adrienne, going home, not taking her husband back? Trying to deal with this with her children? Her delight in Paul’s letters? Discussions with Jean? Hopes, his arrival, his not arriving?
11.Mark coming to the house, his story about Paul’s work, Paul’s death? Her grief? Making the box for him? Reading his last letter, full of hope?
12.The future, with her children, acceptance? Sharing with them?
13.A life-changing experience? A better future for Adrienne even through her grief?
