From the author that created the renowned work, The Notebook comes another tearjerker that pulls at the heart strings: The Best of Me. Released on October 17, The Best of Me accumulated ten million dollars at the box office to round out its opening weekend.

   The Best of Me follows the lives of Amanda Collier and Dawson Cole. The movie reverts back to 1992 and the present day in order for the audience to fully capture the love story between them. Nicholas Sparks is notorious for sappy love stories and heartbreaking twists throughout his acclaimed novels. The Best of Me leaves no shortage of such moments. It epitomizes the classic tragic love story. Boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy breaks up with girl in hopes of giving her a better life, and so on. While so predictable and yet clearly overdone, viewers cannot help but smile and at moments shed a tear for these two love struck characters.

   Teenage Dawson, portrayed by Luke Bracey comes from a rather unfortunate household in which he is beaten and belittled into feeling like he is nothing. In contrast, as in most star crossed love stories, Amanda (played as an obstinate teenager by Liana Liberato) is a privileged girl who sees the sky as her limit. As they fall in love, this optimistic attitude rubs off on Dawson who is determined to become something greater than the infamous name of his family. Through frequent flashbacks, the audience learns the nature behind Dawson and Amanda’s destined love and what causes their distanced present day lives.

Due to the death of an old shared friend, todays Dawson and Amanda (James Marsden and Michelle Monaghan) are reunited after a dreadful breakup.

   The movie toys with the concept of fate and destiny. Is it fate that they never managed to move on from one another? Although, Amanda is married to a self-centered misogynistic man and has a son. Is it fate that Dawson does not die during an explosion on an oil rig he was working on and dreams of Amanda while struggling to stay alive in the first scene? While some of the best movies/books cause the viewer to consider this reoccurring theme, The Best of Me shoves it in the audiences face over and over again. There is no room for speculation as the movie so distinctly begs the audience to consider all this and more as fate.

   The few twists (although over the top) warrant credit to Sparks’ inventive writing. He recounts his inspiration as “[Wanting] to focus on middle-aged characters- people in their forties who are really beginning confront the ‘what-if’ questions, and who are starting to second- guess the choices they made when they were younger.”

   Overall, The Best of Me causes one to really think about the choices made now and how that will affect the future. If a viewer can move past the incredible sappiness of Sparks’ plots and is in the mood for yet another reinvented Romeo and Juliet type movie, then this is definitely a must see (just make sure to bring tissues)!