thoughts on The Longest Ride (spoilers)

Britt Robertson stars as Sophia Danko, a college senior who is planning to leave the North Carolina town where she attends school for an internship in New York City after graduation.  One evening, her friend Marcia (Melissa Benoist) talks her into going to a rodeo with a group of friends.  There, she meets Luke Collins (Scott Eastwood), a professional bull rider who is trying to make a comeback after being sidelined with an injury.  On the drive home from their first date, they happen upon a car accident; an older gentleman (Ira Levinson, played by Alan Alda) has driven off the road and is unconscious in his burning car.  Luke gets him out, and Ira manages to tell Sophia to grab the box that is sitting on the passenger seat.  As she waits for him to regain consciousness at the hospital, she discovers that the box contains a series of letters that Ira wrote to the love of his life, Ruth (played by Oona Chaplin in flashback).  After he wakes up and Sophia explains what is going on, he tells her that his vision isn't great and asks her to read one of the letters to him.  As Sophia begins dating Luke, she also begins visiting Ira regularly, and the film goes back and forth between scenes featuring her romance with Luke and scenes showing Ira and Ruth's life together. 

It's all fairly well-done and interesting.  Sophia and Luke's story intertwines nicely with Ira and Ruth's.  The tension in Sophia and Luke's relationship comes both from the fact that they both know that Sophia is supposed to leave soon and from the fact that doctors have advised Luke against continuing to bull ride following his previous head injury.  The tension in Ira and Ruth's relationship comes from the fact that they can't have children due to complications from an injury Ira sustained in World War II.  The common element between them is art: Sophia is studying art history; Ruth was also an art aficionado, and amassed quite a collection during her marriage to Ira.  Luke is portrayed by Eastwood as an old-fashioned gentleman who makes excuses for clinging to bull riding long after he should have called it quits.  Sophia is studious and independent, though her relationship with Luke makes her question her future plans.  As most films based on Nicholas Sparks novels are, it's set in a North Carolina that seems almost magical.  It avoids some of the more predictable elements of films based on Sparks novels, however.  There's no evil, abusive ex-boyfriend or ex-husband.   No one turns out to be a ghost (I'm pretty sure that only happened in one Sparks novel/film, but hey, that was crazy, right)?  With that in mind, it's probably one of the better Sparks stories, period, as well as one of the better adaptations, second perhaps only to The Notebook.  Yes, Sparks has a particular formula that he follows.  However, if you enjoy that formula, this is a good example of it.