The Lucky One is a film based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks of the same name. I’m sure you’ll be surprised to find out that I’m not really a fan of Nicholas Sparks and his oeuvre, a kind of special breed of sentimental (some would say sappy) romance novels that all seem to follow a formula involving heartbreak that reduces the reader, and viewer of the films based on the books, to wracking sob-inducing crying jags. (That was sarcasm-I’m sure you’re not surprised) As did the producer of The Lucky One, Denise DiNovi (a veteran of Tim Burton’s films), many people came to know Sparks from The Notebook. I have resisted the urge to succumb to that film, despite the presence of fledgling Baby Goose and have managed to avoid all of the others that came after.

Sparks certainly is prolific. We just showed you last week a trailer for another movie based on one of his books, The Vow. The Lucky One, directed by Scott Hicks (Shine), tells the story of a Marine who survives three tours in Iraq and attributes his good fortune to a photograph he carried of a woman he has never met. He sets out to meet his good-luck charm when he returns to North Carolina. Costarring Taylor Schilling (who was so good in the short lived tv series “Mercy”) and Blythe Danner, The Lucky One opens April 20 in the US and 4^th May in the UK.