The Sparks Oeuvre

The past couple weeks I had conversations with two different groups of friends about Nicholas Sparks movies. I guess I'm somewhat of an apologist, because I have generally enjoyed some of the films. I go into the theater knowing what I'm going to get. At this point, more than a decade after the first movie adaption came out, "a Nicholas Sparks movie" is a type of short hand for a romantic and melodramatic movie (exclusively, at this point, about attractive and thin white people) that involves love, time, lost connections, and almost always death. Sometimes it's done and well and sometimes it's not, but my bar for judging them is always based on "for a Nicholas Sparks movie". 

Between one of the conversations with friends I watched The Lucky One. After I did what I normally do-- check to see if Roger Ebert had written a review of it. He HAD! Surprisingly (but also not surprisingly because Ebert was a very fair critic who loved film) he gave it a very decent review; he recognized it for what it was and judged it based on that. 

Nicholas Sparks has a good line in stories like this. They usually involve the triumph of love over adversity, are usually set in beautiful natural settings, usually involve such coincidences as finding a message in a bottle, and usually make me stir restlessly, because such escapism is shameless. Still, credit must be given to a film that delivers the goods, and if you've ever liked a Nicholas Sparks movie, you're likely to enjoy this one. I've seen him in interviews where he's better-looking than some of his leading men and comes across as sincere. I think he really does believe in his stories, and I think readers sense that.

After that, I ended up watching Message in a Bottle after the second conversation with friends. I decided to start at the beginning of the Nicholas Sparks oeuvre, and while I was watching I thought back to my freshman English class at Snow College. The theater department was putting on a staging of "Of Mice and Men" and the teacher had us read the John Steinbeck classic, watch the '92 film with Gary Sinise and John Malkovich AND watch the play and then write up a paper comparing and contrasting. 

So I decided to do that with Nicholas Sparks movies and novels. I was sure The Notebook had been first, but it was the first novel whereas Message in a Bottle was the first movie (The Notebook was the third film adaptation after A Walk to Remember). I'm going to go in order of the movies. I don't know if I'll watch the movie first then read the book, but that's currently the status for Message in a Bottle. I'll have a writeup of the movie and book when I finish. Follow along with #TheSparksOeuvre 

    

		Movie Release	Novel Release	Novel Order
1	Message in a Bottle	1999	April 1998	2
2	A Walk to Remember	2002	October 1999	3
3	The Notebook	2004	October 1996	1
4	Nights in Rodanthe	2008	September 2002	4
5	Dear John	2010	October 2006	5
6	The Last Song	2010	September 2009	8
7	The Lucky One	2012	September 2008	7
8	Safe Haven	2013	September 2010	9
9	The Best of Me	2014	October 2011	10
10	The Longest Ride	2015	September 2013	11
11	The Choice	2016	September 2007	6