Un choix

En plus d'être bancal, avec ses personnages secondaires accessoires et ses ellipses abruptes, ce mélo sentimental aborde sans courage ni subtilité un enjeu de société pourtant très délicat, qu'il est convenu de taire ici. 

Mis à part de beaux paysages invitants de la Caroline du Nord et de beaux acteurs aussi invitants, The Choice ne réussit même pas à se démarquer en qualité ou en originalité des autres oeuvres de Nicholas Sparks.

Walker and Palmer go through their formulaic paces with the sort of enthusiasm generated by the hope that this effort will do for them what previous Sparks films have done for the likes of Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried.

Et c'est bien dommage de constater à quel point Un choix est terriblement réducteur et bourré de clichés.

Darling puppies, tinkling seashell wind chimes, meaningful gazebos and, as always, a drenching rainstorm that ensures the sheer top worn by the lead actress is fully soaked and see-through.

Even those who love the author's rainy, flannel-shirted romances will find this latest go-round limp and uninvolving.

This is the cinematic equivalent of a box of chocolates and a peck on the cheek, empty calories and not much more, but if that's what you're in the market for, it delivers well enough.

There are dog reaction shots, cute closeups of puppies in baskets, night skies that glow like college-dorm blacklight posters, and a sequence where our two lovers seek shelter from a sudden rain shower in a gospel church whose harmoniously multiracial choir sings Traffic’s “Feelin’ Alright.”