Friday 24 April 2015

The Longest Ride


Nicholas Sparks as writer and film producer has created the formula for a goldmine. Eleven of his seventeen romance novels have been adapted into feature films. The tenth of these, 'The Longest Ride', has recently been released in Australia. The ten films released so far have grossed over $834,000,000 worldwide.

The five films I have seen all have storylines constructed to the same template.

A romantic locale. ✔️
An idyllic locale. ✔️
Two grand romances. ✔️
Set them years, decades even, apart. ✔️
Participants have flawless and/or striking appearances. ✔️
Heroes are strong silent types. ✔️
Inject a personal tragedy or two. ✔️
Reveal a twist connection between the romances near the end. ✔️
Season with a couple of deaths.✔️

Voila. You have the McDonalds of storytelling.

'The Longest Ride' comes off the template processing line, formed to the standard.
★★★

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