Movie Review: Nights in Rodanthe - Page 2

If only the sex were better. Granted, this is a PG-13 film, but when a hurricane threatens to rock the house, one expects the suave Gere and the luscious Lane to shake it up, too. After some sweet kisses and tender cuddles, they basically call it a night.

Is that all there is? Not quite. This is a romance, after all.

In one of the nicer early scenes that proves Lane isn’t just another pretty face, Adrienne tries to ease the pain after an angry phone conversation with her ex. She dances to some tunes she plays on an actual turntable (score another one for the AARP crowd), then joins Paul for several shots of Jack Daniel’s before deciding to clean house. Well, at least Jean’s pantry. Hanky-panky is out the question, though, when Adrienne decides she’s had enough fun for one evening. Boo-hoo.

Of course, the relationship eventually hits a rough patch as the two argue about whose life is worse and the wrong choices they have made. Adrienne runs out, the storm nears and the good doctor goes to the rescue.

Fortunately, he resists yelling, “Yo, Adrienne,” to win her back. Instead, he tells her, “Any man is a fool who doesn’t know how lucky he is to have you.”

The healing process begins. They shed a few tears (though it seems incredibly difficult to squeeze that one drop out of Gere), we shed a few tears. A better title for this movie would have been The Notebook for Grownups.

After returning to their families (Flanner reunites with his estranged son, played by James Franco), the couple find strength and solitude in the love letters they write each other. Didn’t they know about e-mail? Just think what they would have saved on postage.

At a jam-packed theater on September 16 in Westminster, Colorado, where they had to turn people away from a sneak preview, the audience was more than 80 percent women. If most of them were there for a good cry, they got it. But what about the ones breathlessly waiting for a hot summer night between the two hotties? Was it in the cards?

In a recent interview with Glamour magazine, Lane might have tipped her hand.

Article Author: Michael Bialas

A newspaper editor and former college football player, Michael Bialas makes sports his business but exploring and reviewing music, movies, TV and other forms of pop culture are among the games he enjoys playing now.
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