Nights in Rodanthe

An unhappily married woman (Diane Lane) spends a weekend tending a friend’s seaside inn, where the only guest is a doctor (Richard Gere) with troubles of his own. Written by Ann Peacock and John Romano (from Nicholas Sparks’ novel) and directed by George C. Wolfe, here’s another one of Sparks’ grandly contrived romantic weepies that have been so popular—as books and as movies (The Notebook, Message in a Bottle), with beautiful stars falling deliriously in love in postcard locations. Lane and Gere gamely discharge their duties, giggling over dinner and strolling hand in hand along the beach, gazing at the ocean. It’s all slick and entertaining, leading up to a gratifying welter of date-movie sniffles. Christopher Meloni plays Lane’s selfish husband, Scott Glenn a local widower with a grudge against Gere.