Ways to improve Sparks movies/Best of Me probs....
I've only read one Sparks book, but having seen most of the adapted movies, I would say:
1. Sparks/filmmakers must stray from the formula and stop giving us the same cookie cutter characters with few shades of gray. Surely Sparks can't be purely absolved of this? He wrote them!
2. My father, who is not a very literary-minded person, was able to predict the entire last 10 minutes of this movie (except for details of the railroad scene). LOSE the predictability.
3. Make these films "harder". Sentiment is great but I feel like I'm watching a freakin' Hallmark commercial.
4. Tuck, the old guy, was the character with whom we could most identify. In a film like this, that seems wrong somehow. In contrast, Amanda's mean father seemed like an interesting character and was then ignored after his introduction.
5. Dawson's father and brothers are so one-dimensionally portrayed, they become caricatures. For example, JUST IN CASE you didn't know they were white trash, they're shooting guns in the yard when first introduced.
6. Given that family's propensity for violence, the young Dawson seemed totally unscathed. How bizarre. At that stage, he should have been a savage/physical basket case.
7. The young Dawson was much bigger and muscular than the old Dawson. Get the look and CASTING RIGHT!
8. It was unrealistic that, in this small town, the doctors could perform heart transplants. They're usually done only in very large metropolitan centers.
Look, these films are sweet and innocent and I love a good love story, but goodness gracious....FIX THESE FILMS!
"The future is tape, videotape, and NOT film?"