20th Century Fox
Damn you, Nicholas Sparks. While said in jest, I half-heartedly mean that after watching his latest romance novel adaptation, The Longest Ride, which was released by 20th Century Fox. I’m not damning him for it being a bad film or even for it being another of the overly sappy love stories that his name has become synonymous with. If I’m being honest, The Longest Ride was probably the best among his works turned into films that I’ve seen to date. No, I damn him for always managing to create this perfect, illusionary world in which true love always conquers all. A world in which men know what it means to be men and how to really treat a lady, instead of the sad reality of 30- and 40-somethings who act more like they’re still in high school and the generation of disappointed women I find lurking beside me.
What really worked for me about The Longest Ride is that the audience gets to witness two love stories unfolding versus just one. The main characters – Luke Collins (Scott Eastwood) and Sophia Danko (Britt Robertson) – meet at a rodeo. Luke is an up-and-coming bull rider who’s trying to climb his way back up to the top of the championship rankings after a temporary setback. The instinct to be the best bull rider in North Carolina flows through his veins about as easily as his Southern gentlemanly charms. He grew up on a cattle ranch and has wanted to be a bonafide cowboy ever since he put on his first cowboy hat and boots as a young boy. Sophia comes from a very different world. The daughter of Polish immigrants who ran a diner in New Jersey, she is a smart, ambitious college senior majoring in art history who dreams of working in a prestigious art gallery. In fact, she’s already lined up an impressive internship at an important art gallery in Manhattan upon her graduation in a couple months. But her priorities in life change after she meets Luke and a very special third major character named Ira Levinson (Alan Alda).
At the end of the couple’s first date (which could not have been more picturesque unless it had ended in a romantic, spur-of-the-moment proposal in the rain), they encounter a car that has run off the road. Luke pulls the old man behind the wheel (Ira) away from the fiery wreckage, as Sophia grabs the box that was sitting in the front seat next to him. Being a kindhearted person, Sophia stays at the hospital to see what becomes of the old man. While she’s waiting in the emergency room, curiosity gets the best of her and she finds herself reading some of the old letters found in his box to pass the time (federal laws about reading another person’s mail be damned). I could definitely relate. I’m fascinated by old letters and photographs and people’s histories. When Ira regains consciousness, the two forge an unlikely but powerful friendship. Sophia reads aloud Ira’s letters to him while he’s recovering, and I think Ira enjoys the companionship mostly because Sophia reminds him a little of his beloved Ruth.
While the modern love story between Luke and Sophia is an interesting one (what woman doesn’t secretly yearn for a rugged, good-looking cowboy with old school manners to sashay in and sweep her off her feet?), it’s the love story between Ira and Ruth that captivated me. Set in the 1940s, we learn all about how sometimes love requires sacrifice. Young Ira is played by a charismatic Jack Huston (Anjelica’s nephew) and young Ruth is played by the beautiful Oona Chaplin (one of Charlie and Oona Chaplin’s granddaughters). While just about everyone and their mom are talking about Scott Eastwood (Clint Eastwood’s son) portraying Luke, I found it more interesting that there’s a new generation of acting Chaplins. Oona lights up the screen in every scene she’s in, whether she’s making you laugh or cry. As a lifelong admirer of Charlie Chaplin’s various contributions to film, I found it refreshing to know that someone in his family is still carrying on the legacy. She seems like a natural, and I’m interested in seeing more of her work (I’ve yet to watch Game of Thrones).
That’s not to discredit the other actors’ performances. I was also quite taken with Jack Huston. He’d be the type of guy I’d be drawn to – the shy, slightly awkward boy who ends up being the greatest love of your life. He was an ideal choice to be the younger version of Alan Alda, who is really the glue that holds this film together. I wish Alda had been given more screen time because he’s as wonderful as always. Scott was equally mesmerizing in his role as Luke. I think he’s far handsomer than his father ever was, and he plays the part of the wild, ambitious cowboy convincingly enough. His face has just the right amount of weathered wrinkling from growing up in the California sun to give him a wizened look beyond his years, while his beautiful eyes have just the right amount of blue sparkle to make the girls instantly swoon (if the excited twitters any time he came on the screen during my screening were any indication). And yes, those washboard abs aren’t exactly unpleasing to the eye either. Britt Robertson is okay as Sophia, but I didn’t feel her performance was strong enough to be the main focus.
There’s a reason why the World War II generation is known to history as being the “Greatest Generation.” It was a different era of patriotism and standing up for what you believe in no matter how great the sacrifice. Ira did his civic duty and went off to fight the Nazis, but he returned from the war a broken man. Only Ruth’s love could help him pick up the pieces and start over again. The couple could never have children as a result of his war injuries, but that didn’t deter their bond. Instead, they chose to focus on what they did have, and could have, together as a couple. Together, they amassed a rather large, impressive art collection over the years. Sophia’s interest in art allows her to connect with Ira’s story perhaps much deeper than the average college student would have been able to.
The Longest Ride is a fascinating backdrop of real-life history and the author’s imagination. tweet
The Longest Ride is a fascinating backdrop of real-life history and the author’s imagination. Sparks’ inspiration for the book was Black Mountain College, a small liberal arts school in North Carolina that included many prominent people in the world of the modern art movement from 1933-1957. The past and present are interwoven beautifully and almost seamlessly as you learn more about both couples and the obstacles they faced to be together. My only wish was that more of the film would have centered around Ira and Ruth’s story because I found it to be the stronger of the two. While there are going to be plenty of critics who dismiss this film as more Nicholas Sparks drivel, I’m here to say it’s less drivelly than the last several of his film adaptations have been. The Longest Ride was an enjoyably sweet ride, through and through.
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