Fleeting nudity is the only thing that separates “The Longest Ride” from most Lifetime TV movies. But, as Nicholas Sparks’ extravaganzas go, it’s not too bad.
Mixing generations (as he did in “The Notebook”), Sparks shows how opposites can attract – and thrive.
Clint Eastwood’s son, Scott, plays a bull rider who’s one concussion away from disaster. He falls for an art student (Britt Robertson) who hasn’t really thought about life on a ranch. (In other words, this is the plotline of this year’s “Bachelor” episodes.)
While on a date, the two come across a wrecked car. Inside: an old man (Alan Alda, for heaven’s sake) who wants a rattan box of letters saved. Naturally, the kids aren’t going to leave the letters alone, so while he’s recovering, Robertson starts reading and learns about his relationship with his wife. That cues plenty of flashbacks and a story that sort of parallels her own.
Alda, we learn, can’t father children. Rather than give a good man up, his wife throws herself into art collecting and becomes something of a guardian to one of her students. She teaches him about art and comes oh-so-close to adopting him.
Meanwhile, back on the ranch, Eastwood continues to defy orders and ride bulls. He moves up in the national standings, too, and has to make some big decisions before audience members start crying.
Directed by George Tillman Jr., “The Longest Ride” has more than a few handkerchief moments. It gets them from Jack Huston and Oona Chaplin (as the younger, sepia-toned Alda and his wife); it lands them with Eastwood and Robertson saying goodbye.
The best waterworks, though, are saved for the end when the old man reveals his way of reuniting his young friends.
Thankfully, Eastwood’s character isn’t some drifter with a shady past that needs revealing. He’s a pleasant young man who just wants to provide for his mom (a very good Lolita Davidovitch). Eastwood looks an awful lot like his dad, but he’s not as guarded or reticent to speak.
Robertson is fine, too, although she could have been replaced by any number of women on ABC Family or The CW.
Alda goes too far with his ailment, but he serves the story and gets a good chunk of the film’s narration.
“The Longest Ride” features a few eight-second rides, a steamy bedroom scene and enough North Carolina landscape to help the state’s tourism. But this isn’t a big stretch for Sparks or anyone else involved.
It’s just a pleasant romance that even boyfriends and husbands won’t mind sitting through.
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