The Choice

It's hard to find a single moment of emotional honesty in this latest helping of meretricious melodrama based on a 2007 book by bestselling novelist Nicholas Sparks, but that won't stop his fans from sighing and weeping over the ham-handed mixture of giggly romance and cheap sentiment on display here. Director Ross Katz's The Choice begins with insipid narration about the importance of the choices we make in life. The words are spoken by Travis (Benjamin Walker), who we see running into a hospital before the film flashes back 10 years earlier to a time when he was a brash womanizer who irritated his new neighbor Gabby (Teresa Palmer), a medical aide at the local hospital and the fiancée of a noble doctor (Tom Welling). It's not long before Gabby's initial hostility turns into something more erotic, and although she's torn between the two men, Gabby dumps the doctor and marries Travis. A decade later she's in a coma resulting from a car accident, and Travis must decide whether to unplug the machines keeping her alive, which is what the doctor advises. Sparks solves the character's dilemma in a fashion that takes the superficiality of his treatment of a serious subject to astronomical heights (or depths). Along the way, The Choice does raise some interesting questions. Why is it only Travis who speaks in a dreadful drawl? Why, after Gabby's accident, does Travis read books to his 10-year-old kids that seem more appropriate for toddlers? How is it that Gabby and Travis's dogs—who appear to be full-grown in 2005—seem not to have aged after 10 years? And, most importantly: why would anybody want to watch such schlock? Not recommended. [Note: Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by director Ross Katz and costar Benjamin Walker, the production featurettes “Nicholas Sparks with…” cast and crew interviews (33 min.), a “Cinematic Choices” making-of (19 min.), “Choosing Home: Nicholas Sparks and North Carolina” (9 min.), and “Molly & Moby: Choice Dogs” (6 min.), as well as deleted scenes (3 min.), the music video “Daylight” by Natalia Safran, trailers, and bonus DVD, digital, and UltraViolet copies of the film. Bottom line: a solid extras package for another lame adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel.] (F. Swietek)