Having not read the book, it’s hard to say if the original story unfolds from this point with more nuance, but in the film version, it is here (right before the opening credits) where things become a little hard to fathom. (Remember the notebook from The Notebook? The “Dear John” letter from Dear John? The message in a bottle from Message in. As you’d expect, it’s another sentimental love story which, in typical Sparks style, centers on an inanimate object and the special significance it plays in bringing together two star-crossed lovers. Now joining the heartstring-pulling ranks of A Walk to Remember and Nights in Rodanthe is an adaptation of Sparks’s 2008 novel The Lucky One, directed by Scott Hicks and starring Zac Efron, Blythe Danner, and promising newcomer Taylor Schilling. Though each of the films may be more mawkish than the last, they’re still famous for their ability to transform the the most cynical cinema-goer into a blubbering wreck-as anyone who’s seen The Notebook on a long-haul flight can attest. Of the seventeen best-sellers he’s written since 1996, six have been adapted into sweeping romantic dramas. Author Nicholas Sparks is like the Stephen King of commercial modern romance novelists.

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