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Movie review: ‘The Choice' chooses to play it safe

For the 11th book (10 novels and one novella) by prolific and insanely successful author Nicholas Sparks to be turned into a feature film, Hollywood dug deep into the well, and chose "The Choice," which was originally published in 2007. For all of the usual reasons - most of them revolving around the matter of predictability; when dealing with something written by Mr. Sparks, you always know what you're going to get - people are either going to adore (fans) or abhor (detractors) the film.

But, as with previous Sparks adaptations, those adoring fans should know that while the essence of this story about love and loss and tragedy and redemption and, in this case, dogs, remains, liberal changes have been made in its transition to the screen. Which, of course, is the right thing to do. What would be the purpose of writing and then having someone act out a script that is note-for-note the book that they already knew?

The film and book are still about opposites attracting. There's handsome, sure-of-himself veterinarian and ladies man Travis Parker (Ben Walker), who has never left his little Southern seaside town, and there's beautiful, slightly anxious medical trainee Gabby Holland (Teresa Palmer), who has just come to town from the big city, and moved into the house right next to Travis'.

To establish their differences, we meet Travis as a popular party guy, who loves to have his friends over to drink beer and play loud classic rock in his yard. Contrast that to Gabby, who prefers to stay inside, pouring over her studies and listening to Bach. But they do share two things in common. Travis, at least for the time being, has an on-and-off girlfriend, Monica (Alexandra Daddario), and Gabby has a steady guy, Ryan (Tom Welling, who has grown kind of wide since his days of starring in "Smallville"). They also each have dogs: Travis' is Moby, Gabby's is Molly.

In one of the film's earliest and best written and acted scenes, the two protagonists get off to a bad start. They meet when she storms over to his house (a 10-second walk), angry about the loud music and about the fact that his dog runs free and her dog is - watch out! - pregnant. Palmer, without a lick of her Australian accent to be heard, is completely convincing as a woman on fire, and Walker, a real-life Georgia boy, who adds a little Southern grit to his actual accent, is funny as a well-meaning wiseguy who finds himself caught off-guard by this powerful force.

But because the screenwriter and director and actors are dealing with material by Sparks, it's not long before everything turns into an exercise that borders on and sometimes blithely dips into an arena of sappiness. You just know that the shaky boy-meets-girl scenario is going to turn into something else. In short order, and after an assist from some cute puppies, the initial bad vibes are gone, boyfriend Ryan is conveniently out of town on business, girlfriend Monica "has the day off," Gabby joins Travis and his friends and sister on a weekend boat ride, and the two get into discussions of love, loyalty, and the universe. Soon after, they're panting in each other's arms. Hey, what about Ryan and Monica? Sorry, things like that are of no concern in Sparksville.

Oh, they do come back into the picture, and there are bad feelings all around, and then there's the trademark Sparks tragedy, and then the circumstances that explain why the book and the movie are called "The Choice," followed by good feelings all around. This is not great literature, nor is it a great film. Everything in the Sparks oeuvre is geared to a specific audience (gentlemen, you can stay home), and that audience is going to be very happy with what they've got here.

Ed Symkus covers movies for More Content Now.

THE CHOICE

Written by Bryan Sipe; directed by Ross Katz

With Ben Walker, Teresa Palmer, Tom Welling, Maggie Grace, Tom Wilkinson

Rated PG-13