The Lucky One 2012 - Movie Critic and Review
Writers: Will Fetters (screenplay), Nicholas Sparks (novel)
Distributor: Warner Bros. Films
Stars: Zac Efron, Taylor Schilling, Blythe Danner, Jay R. Ferguson
Running time: 1 hour, 41 minutes
Too mellow, not much drama
By Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post
Schilling possesses the natural beauty of Reese Witherspoon mixed with the less processed charm of Leslie Mann, but her travails with a bullying ex-husband and sensitive son don't quite qualify as dramatically high stakes.
Most of "The Lucky One" consists in proving how sensitive Logan is (he reads Melville and plays the piano with a suitably faraway look) and how put-upon Beth is as she clatters around her grandmother's impeccably distressed cottage and affects Veronica Lake-esque bangs-in-the-eye sultriness. (Surely one index of age is the reflexive desire to tell an actress she'd be so much prettier if she'd get her hair our of her face. But really, Schilling would.)
Review: The Lucky One
by Tim Hall, seattlepi.com
The idea of The Lucky One is good one – a picture saves a soldier’s life and fate brings two people together. Unfortunately the movie is held back by thoughtless dialogue and more than a few head scratching moments. For instance, numerous scenes of people staring into the distance, Beth’s important but not so important teacher storyline, Logan’s refusal to take a bus to Louisiana, Logan not being given a background check, and Keith’s emotional scene in the church.
The highlight of the film is the jealous ex-husband, sheriff from a rich family, world class jerk named Keith (Jay Ferguson). Keith’s performance should be placed in the Hater Hall of Fame. He did everything in his power to make Logan’s life miserable, and punish Beth for even thinking about dating another man. Keith gives off a pretty good hateful stare in addition to his abusive ex-husband traits.
'The Lucky One' pours on the sappy romance
USA TODAY
Out of four. Not that Efron doesn't make the best of a predictable role. He plays Sgt. Logan Thibault, who returns from his third tour of duty in Iraq and hoofs it from Colorado to Louisiana, accompanied by his dog, Zeus. What prompts this trek? A photo of an unknown woman that he stumbled across on the battlefield. Logan credits her smiling visage with keeping him alive. With only the knowledge that her name is Beth and a vague idea of where she lives, he tracks her down.
‘The Lucky One’ does not refer to the viewer
By Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
Schilling, meanwhile, has to embarrass herself by saying the words “jambalaya” and “Voltaire” and by pretending to be close to orgasm while standing at a kitchen sink and watching Efron sling heavy sacks in the cab of a truck. After Danner catches her drooling, she does more fumbling around. Later, when it’s time, figuratively, to fog some windows, Schilling has to become the sort of costar eager to be pinned to the wall of an outdoor shower stall. By Zac Efron. Needless to say there are many tweenagers who would dump their best friends for the opportunity to stand in Schilling’s shorts.
But that’s what’s unfortunate about her: She is one of a few actors in a movie or on TV with a woman’s carriage, and here she’s a surrogate for millions of girls. As sex education goes, it’s a terrible development. Seeing her and Efron fumble at each other is like watching a stick of butter and a bag of flour not turn into a cake.
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