Nights in Rodanthe

Rating:

* *

Verdict:

Good performances, great location but terribly predictable and derivative.

Richard Gere and Diane Lane team up together for the third time (after

Cotton Club

and

Unfaithful

) for this tear-jerking, contrived and sentimental look at "second chance" love.

The film is from a novel by Nicholas Sparks, the American author whose previous works

The Notebook

and

Message in a Bottle

also lit up the big screen with old-fashioned romance. This one comes with the tagline: "It's never too late for a second chance" with the ol' silver fox Richard Gere playing divorced surgeon Paul Flanner.

He arrives in the beautiful coastal town of Rodanthe to talk to an elderly patient suing him for malpractice. Excuse the digression, but Rodanthe is one of the most interesting things in this film.

As the easternmost point of North Carolina, situated on Hatteras Island, it's a   picturesque place where time has stood still. Life is governed by the forces of nature, where gigantic houses have been randomly built on the beach and water laps at their steps. If this film does one thing right it is to capture this area beautifully, thanks to cinematographer Affonso Beato.

While Rodante is intriguing, the story in its foreground isn't. When Flanner arrives at his bed and breakfast, he finds Adrienne Willis (Diane Lane) looking after the place for her best friend. Adrienne is the dedicated mother of two kids trying to deal with her  husband's affair and their separation. When a hurricane hits, Adrienne and Flanner find comfort in each other's arms, and, well you can imagine the rest.

Gere and Lane do a good job of rising above the predictability of the story, and how much you enjoy this film will depend on how well you cope with director George C. Wolfe's Oprah-like sermon about not giving up on love and life, complete with wild horses galloping along the beach. Without those groan-inducing nags, it might have earned another star.

Francesca Rudkin

Cast:

Diane Lane, Richard Gere, James Franco

Director:

George C. Wolfe

Running Time:

97 mins

Rating:

PG (Coarse Language)

Screening:

SkyCity, Hoyts, Rialto, Bridgeway and Berkeley Cinemas