This is perhaps unusual for a review, but let's get the movie portion of the review out of the way...
Longest Ride is at best a "Lifetime" romantic drama that is overlong, has a weakish script, relies heavily on flashbacks, lacks focus, and at the very end tries (with limited success) to redeem itself with a "feel good" happy ending.
The happy ending was sort of fun. The rest of the film, not so much.
The real issue is whether this fork in Robertson' career will pay off or not...?
Going into this project Robertson had some extraordinary credits:
In both FIRST TIME and ASK ME ANYTHING she stole both films. She was hypnotic. She was mesmerizing. The camera loved her. The audience loved her. She could do no wrong.
In TommorrowLand, her most commercial project (filmed the same year as Longest Ride) she did a very acceptable job playing "young" (she is mid-20s, she played a teenager) and can claim to have carried a major Disney movie, not to mention holding her own in scenes with George Clooney.
And to top all that off -- Longest Ride? I don't think so. Weighed down by weak script and direction, she seems lost, cannot connect with a poorly written character, and is just marking time.
Until her next star turn comes along.
Longest Ride is at best a "Lifetime" romantic drama that is overlong, has a weakish script, relies heavily on flashbacks, lacks focus, and at the very end tries (with limited success) to redeem itself with a "feel good" happy ending.
The happy ending was sort of fun. The rest of the film, not so much.
The real issue is whether this fork in Robertson' career will pay off or not...?
Going into this project Robertson had some extraordinary credits:
In both FIRST TIME and ASK ME ANYTHING she stole both films. She was hypnotic. She was mesmerizing. The camera loved her. The audience loved her. She could do no wrong.
In TommorrowLand, her most commercial project (filmed the same year as Longest Ride) she did a very acceptable job playing "young" (she is mid-20s, she played a teenager) and can claim to have carried a major Disney movie, not to mention holding her own in scenes with George Clooney.
And to top all that off -- Longest Ride? I don't think so. Weighed down by weak script and direction, she seems lost, cannot connect with a poorly written character, and is just marking time.
Until her next star turn comes along.