I told a friend that I was going to watch The Lucky One and she said that I better make sure that I had a lot of water onhand to make sure I wasn’t dehydrated by the end of the movie.  That’s some of the best advice I’ve ever received.

It’s a Nicholas Sparks adaptation.  Zac Efron plays a Marine who finds a picture of Taylor Schilling in Iraq.  He survives an attack that wipes out all of his friends and he feels as if it was because he was destined to find the woman in the picture.  She tracks her down to Louisiana, where she’s living with her mother (Blythe Danner) and her sensitive son (Riley Thomas Stewart) and where she’s still struggling to accept the death of her brother in Iraq.  Zac Efron could have avoided a lot of drama by showing her the picture as soon as he arrived at her beautiful home but instead, he takes a job as a handyman around the house.  If he had avoided the drama, there would be no movie!

It’s really overdramatic because, of course, Taylor Schilling’s ex-husband (Jay R. Ferguson) is the son of the most powerful man in town and he keeps threatening to take away his son.  It doesn’t matter though because Zac Efron plays a sweet man with a damaged soul, a man who never yells and who encourages Taylor’s son to play the violin and who serves as a strong male role model while all the other men in town are too busy sucking up to Ferguson’s father.  Zac Efron loves dogs and long walks.  He plays chess.  He plays the piano.  He’s served his country.  And he says, “You should be kissed every day, every hour, every minute.”  Don’t bother me with reality, I’m too busy over here swooning.

The Lucky One is a good movie for Valentine’s Day.  Any other day, maybe it wouldn’t be so good.  But for Valentine’s Day, it’s great!