Dawson has an accident while being heroic which should have killed him twice over. While ruminating on whether there is a reason for his survival, he is notified of the death of Tuck who was a father figure to him (Dawson came from a ne'er-do-well family, and Tuck took him in and encouraged him to make something of himself. While at Tuck's for the funeral, he meets Amanda, the rich girl who was his first love (and he hers): despite 20 years having gone by, they discover that they both still love each other. But Amanda is married with a family. The present day story unfolds in parallel with the story of 20 years ago and why and how they parted.
This romantic drama has its moments despite being somewhat hampered by clodhopping obviousness in its plotting – there are frequent moments when something happens which leads you to assume that, as a result, XYZ will be following in fairly short order, and so it does. This is at its worst towards the end when Amanda's son injures a heart valve in an accident and needs a heart transplant, following which we are served up with a reminder (like we needed it) that Dawson must have survived his accident for a reason. I bet I can guess what that reason is, right? The performances are mostly fine, albeit Dawson's white trash family are somewhat over the top. James Marsden and Michelle Monaghan as the late 30s Dawson and Amanda are very good, as are Luke Bracey and Liana Liberato as their teenage versions. Unfortunately, the teenagers don't look very much like their older versions – Bracey looks like Heath Ledger, and Liberato has a different sort of prettiness to Monaghan (she also overdoes the vibrato in her voice during moments of high emotion).
There were some genuinely moving moments in this: there were also too many moments when I was aware of being mechanically manipulated by moving the story where the author wanted it to go, not where it felt it would go naturally.
This romantic drama has its moments despite being somewhat hampered by clodhopping obviousness in its plotting – there are frequent moments when something happens which leads you to assume that, as a result, XYZ will be following in fairly short order, and so it does. This is at its worst towards the end when Amanda's son injures a heart valve in an accident and needs a heart transplant, following which we are served up with a reminder (like we needed it) that Dawson must have survived his accident for a reason. I bet I can guess what that reason is, right? The performances are mostly fine, albeit Dawson's white trash family are somewhat over the top. James Marsden and Michelle Monaghan as the late 30s Dawson and Amanda are very good, as are Luke Bracey and Liana Liberato as their teenage versions. Unfortunately, the teenagers don't look very much like their older versions – Bracey looks like Heath Ledger, and Liberato has a different sort of prettiness to Monaghan (she also overdoes the vibrato in her voice during moments of high emotion).
There were some genuinely moving moments in this: there were also too many moments when I was aware of being mechanically manipulated by moving the story where the author wanted it to go, not where it felt it would go naturally.