As you can tell by the title of this post that I pretty much loved this movie. I got the honor of having to screen this movie on the first day of it’s Promo Tour Journey in NYC on a chilly Saturday evening of March 28th. It may have been chilly outside but inside the theater if was anything but. The whole experience was amazing! From the check-in where we were given our Baked by Melissa tiny tiny cupcakes (YUM!) followed by hugs from Scott Eastwood… ok … stop laughing… no really it happened!!!… *sigh* fine! it didn’t. But there were some very nice people who offered to take our picture in front of The Longest Ride backdrop… DIVINE!
(see 13s mark for Vik)
Thanks to the fans, cast & crew that came out to our #LongestRideGNO screening in #NYC last night! #IHeartLongestRide pic.twitter.com/90qHZq3MHX — Nicholas Sparks (@NicholasSparks) March 29, 2015
Once we were settled in our seats with a perfect angle of the chairs where the stars of the movie would sit and answer Questions and Answers collected by the nice people of Cosmopolitan… the magic began (sans previews… it was weird… my movie companion even whispered “did the movie start already?”… even I had to take a pause before answering).
Oooookay… I’ve been sitting here and not knowing what to begin with first… should I gush about the performance of the actors and quite frankly the bulls themselves, the cinematography, the story line adopted from the book, the costumes… jeez everything was absolutely perfect.
If you are not familiar with the book it centers around 2 couples separated by time. In present we have Sophia, college student with passion for art, who meets Luke, a ranch-owning bull-riding professional at a riding event and prove that 2 opposites are very much attracted to each other. Little side note, the shots of riders getting on the bulls and that moment before the gates open and the cowboy has to hold on for those longest 8 seconds of his life were beyond words. You felt like you were in that bullpen, perhaps on Scott’s/Luke’s back and hoping to pull him off that thing because DAMN MAN GET OFF THAT BULL IT’S ANGRY AND WILL USE YOU AS A CHEW TOY THE FIRST CHANCE IT WILL GET! So these completely opposite people who are different in every way but yet at the core of everything are the same… they are hard-working and family-orientated are meant to be together. But in true Nicholas Sparks fashion must go through hardships and trials that test the strength of their love for each other… and collect bucket full of tears from us readers/viewers.
In past/occasionally present, we have Ira recalling his journey of falling in love with his beloved wife Ruth. The life that was spent collecting art of then starting artists, a task that gave his wife Ruth joy and to Ira the pleasure of making her happy in lieu of being able to give her children. Their story is a heart-breaking one both in the book and in the movie. How their story is handled a bit differently in the movie then it is revealed in the book but I was ok with that.
The movie took liberties with re-arranging events to make the story more movie viewing friendly and for the first time ever I was happy with that. As book-lovers we cringe when we hear our beloved books will be made into a movie (after the initial elation wanes that is). But for me Craig Bolotin created a perfect storyline that in no way took away from the full impact of the book. If anything he added something extra that made it enjoyable and didn’t make me feel ‘well they should have added that, it didn’t feel like it made a true impact of their relationship’ which happens to me often when viewing book-to-movie adaptations.
Overall, the movie was a perfect nugget of happiness that my life needed. Dare I saw… watch out Notebook! but that may be my love of Scott Eastwood who was a perfect sweetie during the Q & A that happened after the screening and do I see a bit of crush on Oona Chaplin who plays Ruth (see video)? Can’t blame him she is GORGEOUS! Hmm… food for thought on that (comments welcome). It is mentioned in the Q & A but George Tillman Jr. did something fantastic as far as cinematography… can you spot it? It’s very subtle and took me a while to notice myself as I was so overtaken by the story but it’s there…
So everyone if you haven’t gotten your tickets to see the movie get it ASAP! It’s a must go chick-flick that will make you cry and believe in love, true love, the love that will make you stay even through all the hardships or because of them… up to you how you want to take that.
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