The Longest Ride
“The Longest Ride”, based on the 2013 Nicholas Spark novel of the same name, will not take home any awards, but it will do what it’s intended and entertain its target demographic. Set in coastal North Carolina, as most Sparks stories are, “Longest Ride” is actually a combination of two love stories spanning eras apart.
We first meet Sophia (Britt Robertson), a Wake Forest senior Art Major, being “forced” to stop her studying and go with her fellow sorority sisters to watch some “hot cowboys”, or rather bull riding. Enjoying it more than she thought she would, Sophia quickly locks eyes with a hunky bull rider, Luke (Scott Eastwood – Son of Clint and quite the doppelganger!). They immediately feel a connection and Luke invites her to a romantic, lakeside picnic for a first date.
Luke is an old-fashioned, cattle ranch raised, country boy, while Sophia is only in North Carolina because of her art scholarship and will be leaving for an exclusive internship in New York City in a matter of months. Despite their chemistry and attraction, they decide to put the brakes on the possibility of any romance or relationship, as their lives travel in completely opposite directions.
While driving Sophia back to her sorority house after their date, Luke notices a broken guard rail where they find an injured Ira Levinson (Alan Alda) in a burning car about to explode. While Luke comes to rescue and lifts Ira from the flaming vehicle, Ira asks Sophia to save his “box”. Upon arriving to the hospital, Sophia opens the box to find many love letters from Ira to his love Ruth (Oona Chaplin). An unexpected relationship develops between Sophia and Ira as he heals from his accident and she reads him his letters and he relives his own love story with Ruth, a Jewish Austrian immigrant who came to North Carolina at the beginning of World War II.
Both love stories have parallels and obstacles. Both Ruth and Sophia are art majors, while the men in their lives see art more as a “series of squiggly lines on paper”. Ira and Ruth struggle with infertility (due to a war injury) and Luka and Sophia have a hard time seeing how they can fit in each other’s worlds.
While the movie is a bit “cheesy” and predictable, it is an endearing love story (two of them actually) about the “ride” of love and all of its ups and downs. Ira tells Sophia, “Love requires sacrifice…always”. In true Sparks fashion, the story has a happy ending, with the guy getting the girl.
A 6 out of 10 stars.
