Show Lane cant can't save Nights Nights' The The B Baltimore Sun The only reason to see Nights in Rodanthe is to check in with Diane Lane N Neither either a femme fatale nor a girl next door Lane has always had an intense prettiness and confidence She's a master of the middle range of feelings including middle-class middle regret and longing Navigating the secret corners comers of conventional living is isher isher isher her specialty Nights in Rodanthe is just her latest and alas least opportunity to practice it Adapted from yet another Nicholas Sparks seller best-seller The Notebook about amorous healing Nights at Rodanthe takes place mostly in a North Carolina coastal town where Lanes Lane's Adrienne Willis has gone to play hotelier for a friend who's out of town Her one customer is an attractive plastic surgeon Dr Paul Flanner Planner Richard Gere A mother of two Adrienne is estranged from her husband Christopher Meloni who has suddenly declared t he wants her back Paul divorced long ago hopes to i meet face to face with the widower of a woman who i died in a freak accident on his operating table And did I mention theres there's a hurricane on the horizon Director George C. C Wolfe and screenwriters Ann Peacock and John Romano adjust the material for their stars but streak it with their own brand of fake wisdom and treacle Adrienne is isnow isnow isnow now an artist who gave up her ambitions when she became a wife and mother Paul is a professionals professional's professional and that's his flaw he staked his identity on being the best doctor he could be rather than a decent husband or father After taking care of this troublesome past business he aims to reconnect with his idealistic doctor son James Franco and join him as a missionary medic in Ecuador Its It's very neat and I dont don't mean that as a compliment He gets to teach her to r make hard decisions and t hold to them she gets him t to share the pain of his j patients and their families Together they have great s soul-mate soul sex knowing 1 hell he'll be going away for i months to restore his bond with his son Not even Lane can push this soggy mass i uphill Sure Gere is apt i casting for a man who hides 1 his vulnerability beneath 1 his silver-fox silver surface But he cant can't conjure any fresh expressions of guilt- guilt streaked callousness and emergent decency Scott Glenn imbues the aggrieved widower with a gnarly decency but director Wolfe doesn't know how to tap this actors actor's wells of mournful or sardonic humor In general Wolfe ladles on the local color Underneath it all you get is white bread |