Nights in Rodanthe (PG)

Oct 9 2008 By Roz Laws

RICHARD Gere and Diane Lane, who starred together in The Cotton Club and Unfaithful, team up again for this sentimental romance.

He is divorcee Dr Paul Flanner, who arrives in the North Carolina town of Rodanthe and stays in an inn run by unhappily married Adrienne (Lane).

He’s reeling from the death of a patient on the operating table and is trying to come to terms with his estranged son James Franco, while she’s got a cheating husband. A hurricane brings the two together in a rather implausible plot.

It’s based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks, who wrote The Notebook, but doesn’t make such a good transition to the screen as that epic weepy.

Beautifully filmed and acted, Gere and Lane make a natural couple with good chemistry, but the script is rather too earnest and manipulative. If you’re in the mood for having your heartstrings pulled, make sure you take some tissues along.

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