The Lucky One (2012)
US Marine Logan Thibault (Zac Efron) has already completed three Iraq missions. The last one, he’s convinced, he only survived thanks to a photo he happened to see of a pretty young woman lying on the ground (while the world blew up around him). Now Logan is back home and wants to find his “lucky charm”. He succeeds quite quickly: The young woman’s name is Beth (Taylor Schilling) and she runs a dog kennel in the middle of the country. The two do develop strong feelings for each other – but then Beth’s husband, the owner of the infamous photo, shows up…
The film adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel offers what the inclined ORF viewer would describe as a Sunday evening Rosamunde Pilcher TV strip: Picturesque landscape panoramas, exuberant emotions, beautiful actors (here, too, Efron may presenting his well-toned upper body in at least one scene) and heart-ache drama that moves but doesn’t worry too much. “The Lucky One” doesn’t even try to be anything other than what it is, on the contrary: it celebrates kitsch with self-confidence and without apologies. And that’s perfectly okay!