The Longest Ride - Film Review

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Thu 09 Apr 2015 - Wed 06 May 2015

Sophia (Britt Robertson), an art-loving sorority gal with her sights set on a once-in-a-lifetime internship in New York, falls head over boots for ambitious bull rider, Luke (Scott Eastwood). Their relationship appears doomed from the get-go, until a serendipitous event leads them to Ira (Alan Alda), an aged gent with his own tale of love and loss. The film follows their twin stories of past and present as Sophia and Luke flicker between choosing a life of success, or love.

Alrighty. So the first thing you need to do (and probably have done already) is keep the expectations low – at a nice, gentle hum if you will. Now before you scamper off, I'm not straight up branding the movie a dud. On the contrary, good people! But if you head into this flick expecting the bomb diggity of an original whirlwind romance, you will be sorely disappointed. However, that doesn't make the piece a lost cause does it? I don't think so.

Critics are trashing The Longest Ride left, right and centre for many obvious, not altogether shocking reasons. But flat facts are, if you have a decent amount of oestrogen swishing around your system, you will have plenty of reasons to enjoy it.

Take item one: Clint Eastwood's son and his chiselled jaw and abs. A fine reason to see a movie! Call me sexist if you like, but the fact is, that's why he's there. And I, for one, am totally fine with it. Item two: it's got the old 'love at first sight' chestnut – the ultimate romantic's fantasy. Pretty people could probably end most of the world's woes if they just fell in love with us normals the moment they saw us. Food for thought, aye pretty people? Item three: he's a cowboy with old fashioned, gentlemanly values, falling in love with a city chick unaccustomed to being treated like a lady. There's a lot of cute moments when they mingle in each other's 'worlds', and Robertson is kind of adorable beside Eastwood sexy-pants.


This is a romance. One I would rank slightly above the run-of-the-mill kind. It wasn't made to win Oscars, so let's not judge it like it was. It was however, made to charm the lovers of love, regardless of how mushy and unbelievable it is. Romance is another word for fairytale, and there are certainly far worse fairytales out there. So I would highly recommend you grab a gal pal or two, head down to a wine serving cinema (nudge nudge), settle in, and have a good old fashioned perve and a cry.



I'm not a huge fan of Nicholas Sparks, and wouldn't have bothered seeing this without a free ticket, but I'm glad I went along. I liked it! The Longest Ride was, for me, one of his better stories.

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!date 09/04/2015 -- 06/05/2015
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