Nights in Rodanthe (PG-13, 2008)

Paul Flanner (Richard Gere), a distressed doctor, heads for North Carolina's Outer Banks to settle some unfinished business. When he arrives at the Inn of Rodanthe, he meets Adrienne Willis (Diane Lane); she's filling in for a friend who owns the B&B, but the long weekend is really more of a respite from her troubles back home. Her husband (Christopher Meloni), who left her seven months ago for another woman, now says he wants to come back. Adrienne is conflicted but wants to do right by her two children, one of whom is a teenager longing to have her broken family put together again. But that may not be in the cards: Cocooned in an idyll of sorts -- a hurricane's about to hit and the inn is deserted save for the two of them -- Paul and Adrienne fall headlong into love. Still, real life is waiting in the wings; are these two wayward souls meant to be for the moment or fated to be together forever?

The answer to that question is, amazingly, somewhat complicated. (It qualifies as "amazing" primarily because not much else is complex in this by-the-book tearjerker.) Lane and Gere, who previously costarred in the outstanding Unfaithful, do the best they can with thin material -- the movie feels more like an outline than a fully realized drawing -- that forces them too quickly into a swoon-fest of a romance.

Ultimately, even though it asks some interesting questions -- What does it mean to find your soul mate when you think you're way past the typical soul mate stage? What do we owe our kids? -- NIGHTS IN RODANTHE (based on the same-named book by Nicholas Sparks) inevitably suffers from a lack of ambition. Thank goodness for the lead actors, who gamely give it their all. (No one cries better than Lane.) And, what do you know? They almost succeed. When the movie's twist ending kicks in, it actually cuts near to the bone.

Studio: Warner Bros.
Director: George C. Wolfe
Cast: Diane Lane, James Franco, Richard Gere
Genre: Drama
Run time: 98 minutes
Theatrical release: September 25, 2008
DVD release: February 10, 2009
MPAA Rating: PG-13
MPAA explanation: some sensuality.