THE CHOICE (2016)

Directed by Ross Katz and based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks with a screenplay by Bryan Sipe this is a film for the romantic in all of us. If you are adverse to any of the Nicholas Sparks books and their many film incarnations then this film is not for you. However if you want to be moved by an old fashioned, somewhat clichéd but beautifully executed film then this is one for you. I have to admit not having read the book I wasn’t quite sure how this story was going to end so that is saying something to the writers and filmmakers for keeping me guessing up to the end. This is not a story for the cynical of heart but if you want to feel and actually have a good time at the movies like they used to in the forties and fifties then don’t ponder the rhyme or reason of what’s happening. Very well acted by Teresa Palmer, Benjamin Walker, Maggie Grace and Tom Wilkinson among others, I was deeply moved and left the theatre actually elated by what I'd just seen.