War is an ugly thing. For U.S. Marine Logan Thibault (Zac Efron), he’s seen his fair share of turmoil in his three tours of Iraq. After finding a picture of a woman in the rubble, he miraculously survives multiple attacks in which he sees many of his team die. Seeing the picture as a good luck charm, he vows to find this mystery woman and thank her in person.

Surprisingly, finding this woman (Beth) isn’t that difficult and Logan soon begins working for her and the two develop a relationship. As it turns out, the image belongs to Beth’s brother and the two were very close. As Logan and Beth get closer and closer, he can’t bring himself to tell her about the picture and why he’s really there.

The Lucky One is a film adaptation of another Nicholas Sparks novel so without going into any more detail, you already have a good inclination on how the film plays out. It’s your typical romantic drama with the story doing little to mix things up. Leading couple Zac Efron and Taylor Schilling don’t make it any better, either.

For the most part, Efron is nothing more than a pretty face to look at. He shows little emotion throughout the film, making it as if Shilling is talking to a brick wall. Sure, we can understand that a war veteran might have some difficulty adjusting to the normalcy of life but his performance could have been a lot better. There is this constant back and forth playfulness between the two that drags out the film far too long. That being said, The Lucky One isn’t the worst of the Nicholas Sparks adaptations.

Blythe Danner, who plays Beth’s wise mother, always seems to have something intelligent to say. There’s also the lovable Ben (Riley Thomas Stewart), Beth’s son. Together they make up for the shortcomings on Efron and Shilling.

In the end, The Lucky One delivers exactly what you would expect. It’s a romantic drama that isn’t very romantic or dramatic. If you’re a fan of Nicholas Sparks, then you’ll probably get a kick out of it, otherwise it’s best to stay clear of this one.

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