"Too conventional of its genre - in a negative way..."

The Lucky One is yet another film adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel, and yet another mawkish and overly-sentimental romantic flick, joining the back of a long line of unsatisfying adaptations of the work of the hugely successful American novelist.

Zac Efron plays Logan, a brawny American soldier, fighting for his country in Iraq. Having miraculously survived three tours serving his nation, Logan is convinced he had a guardian angel looking over him, in the form of the young woman in a photograph he found in a pile of rubble.

When returning home Logan decides he is going to find this mystery woman and thank her for saving his life, and when he finally tracks down Beth (Taylor Schilling) - working at a family run dog training centre and living as a single mother with her son Ben (Riley Thomas Stewart) - Logan falls for her instantly and suddenly his initial reasons for finding her become secondary. However, his pursuit for Beth's affections are competed for by her ex-husband and vindictive policeman Keith (Jay R. Ferguson).

There is certainly potential within The Lucky One's premise for a compelling road movie, as Logan searches for someone who has no name but exists merely as a passport sized photograph. Yet such an element is completely void from Scott Hicks’ production as Beth is found far too early on, and as a result the film merely becomes an ordinary romantic drama. Due to meeting Beth so promptly, following a search which lasts all of two minutes, the rest of the feature is merely filling out the impending romance between the two protagonists, rather than separating the film into two stories; finding her, and then trying to keep her.

Such apprehensions towards the romantic aspects are down to the terrible mawkishness of the production. There is so much sludge emanating from the combination of pro-US Army patriotism, with the drippy, archetypal romance, combining the two to make for one of the most bathetic films I've seen in a long while. Some of the most obvious aspects are so ridiculous it's actually quite funny. Hicks has clearly read the book of guidelines into making a typical Hollywood romance picture, as he uses a host of the more over-used cinematic cliches of the genre. We have dramatic rain, people running after other people to music that sounds like Lassie composed it, and at one point we even have Efron turning his back to Schilling and reflecting upon a past memory whilst gazing out into the distance.

In fairness to Efron, however, he actually turns in quite a respectable performance, in an evidently keen attempt to shake off his High School Musical tag. Playing a soldier certainly helps in that respect, although the sentimentality of the romantic plot isn't doing him any favours. His character of Logan is ridiculously perfect as well, as there is barely a fault you can find with him in any regard. He even manages to undo a bra with just one hand. The performances overall aren't actually bad at all, as Schilling is also impressive, but the lacklustre and highly stereotypical script is what lets this film down.

The Lucky One is just too conventional of its genre - in a negative way, and as a result becomes highly forgettable and uninspiring. I'm not blaming Sparks as such, but if he stops writing 'em, we can stop watching 'em.