10 Cheesy Things That Only Nicholas Sparks Movies Can Get Away With
Is there anything better than a Nicholas Sparks film? The author knows how to write an emotional, tearjerker novel, but the movie adaptations are even more iconic. They’re cheesy, tear-inducing love stories, but no matter how many times you watch the movies, you still enjoy them.
Sparks knows the formula for writing a good love story. His movies tug at our heartstrings and make us swoon. Yes, they’re cheesy, but they somehow work in his movies. Take a look at 10 cheesy things every Nicholas Sparks movie has in common. They’re definitely clichés, but only Sparks can get away with them.
10 The Perfect Setting
If you’re going to watch Nicholas Sparks’ movies, you know they're going to take place in North Carolina, preferably a small town. Because Sparks resides in the coastal state, the bulk of his novels are set in North Carolina (apart from The Last Song). After all, authors like to write what they know.
The setting accounts for plenty of beach and water scenes, beautiful scenery, romantic dates, and more. Many of his characters fall in love with North Carolina just as much as they fall in love with their potential partner. North Carolina is the perfect place to sit on the beach, chat, and eventually kiss.
9 Love Triangles
Every good romance story has an interesting love triangle. It builds tension. Nicholas Sparks’ movies teach viewers that you need to fight for your love, even if the person is already engaged to someone else. For example, in The Notebook, Allie Hamilton (Rachel McAdams) meets captain Lon Hammond Jr. (James Marsden) while volunteering at a hospital for wounded World War II soldiers. They eventually become engaged, even though it’s obvious Allie belongs with Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling).
Love triangles also take place in Nights in Rodanthe, Dear John, Safe Haven, The Lucky One, The Choice, and The Best of Me. The movies prove that if you really love someone, go for it, even if they’re already committed to someone else.
8 Plenty Of Love Letters
Do people still write love letters? Well, they do in Nicholas Sparks’ movies. Writing letters is often a way for characters to stay connected, especially if they’re separated from each other. In The Notebook, Noah writes Allie a letter every day for a year, until finally giving up when she doesn’t return his letters (Spoiler alert: She never received the letters because of her meddling mother).
In Dear John, Savannah Lynn Curtis (Amanda Seyfried) and John Tyree (Channing Tatum) exchange letters while he’s serving overseas in Afghanistan. If it’s just a message in a bottle (Message in a Bottle), long-distance love (Nights in Rodanthe), letters to your wife (The Longest Ride), or a letter to your husband’s future love (Safe Haven), Nicholas Sparks films reinforce that the only way to a person’s heart is through a letter.
7 Passage Of Time
Unlike a Hallmark Channel movie, couples in Nicholas Sparks’ movies don’t start their "happily ever after" in three days. While they have an immediate attraction to one another, it can take years for them to finally be together. Noah and Allie in The Notebook are separated for seven years (14 years, in the book). When they reunite, they wonder if their love could have survived all that time apart.
Couples are also separated in Dear John, The Best of Me, and others. It’s heartbreaking to watch the melodrama, but you can usually expect them to end up together by the film’s conclusion.
6 Romantic Dancing
There is at least a romantic dance scene in every Nicholas Sparks movie. Of course, slow dancing often leads to a kiss. Characters dance their way into love in Safe Haven, A Walk to Remember, The Longest Ride, The Notebook, and many more.
Dancing requires synchronized movement, which demonstrates if a couple is physically compatible. Couples dance at weddings, parties, in a living room, or even in the middle of a street. When they’re wrapped in each other’s arms, you know what’s going to happen. It might be cheesy and predictable, but you still love to watch them dance.
5 Social Differences
Forbidden love is a trope Nicholas Sparks loves to incorporate into his stories. He creates tension between his lead characters by giving them contrasting economic and social backgrounds. For example, most of his male leads have blue-collar jobs. The female leads come from a family that doesn’t approve of the relationship (like Allie’s family in The Notebook).
Jamie Sullivan’s (Mandy Moore) father doesn’t approve of Landon Carter (Shane West) in A Walk to Remember. Amanda Collier’s (Michelle Monaghan) parents object to her relationship with Dawson Cole (James Marsden) in The Best of Me. But despite these objections, the couples find a way to get past the social class differences.
4 The Same Movie Posters
You can often identify Nicholas Sparks’ movies just by the movie posters. The posters are practically all the same: the couple embracing, looking fondly into each other’s eyes, and they’re almost kissing. If you see a poster that looks like this, you say, “Oh, that’s a Nicholas Sparks movie.” You probably wouldn’t be wrong.
This has become Sparks’ trademark. If a movie poster didn’t have this image, it would probably create an uproar. If there is going to be a Nicholas Sparks movie, you know what the poster is going to look like.
3 Kiss In The Rain
Nicholas Sparks’ movies love to leave viewers in anticipation of the couple’s first kiss. You know it’s going to happen eventually, but it takes a while to build up that passion. They might go on a boat, have several dates, look fondly at each other, and then they kiss. However, they often end up kissing while it’s raining.
Couples kiss in the rain in The Notebook (a downpour scene to inspire all other romance movies), Dear John, Nights in Rodanthe, Message in a Bottle, The Lucky One, and others. If you notice it starts to rain in one of Sparks’ movies, be prepared for a romantic kissing scene.
2 A Lot Of Death
Even though Nicholas Sparks’ films have great love stories, they’re also emotional and often involve death. You know someone is either going to get sick or die in a tragic accident. A Walk to Remember is essentially a story about Jamie having leukemia. In The Last Song, Ronnie Miller’s (Miley Cyrus) father dies of cancer. In Dear John, John’s father dies from a stroke.
Death is also featured in The Lucky One, Nights in Rodanthe, The Best of Me, Message in a Bottle, Safe Haven, and finally in The Notebook, in which Noah and Allie die peacefully in each other’s arms. When you watch a Nicholas Sparks film, you fall in love with the main couple, but you should probably be prepared for a sad ending.
1 Cheesy Dialogue
Nicholas Sparks’ films are geared towards women. So, you can expect to hear cheesy, romantic one-liners. They might make you cringe, but you can’t resist them. They only work in Sparks’ films. The Lucky One features the line of dialogue: “You should be kissed, every day, every hour, every minute.”
In addition, Dear John's John says, “No matter where you are in the world, the moon is never bigger than your thumb.” That’s a sweet line, but a typical line of dialogue in romance movies. Finally, there’s the famous line from The Notebook, in which Noah says, “It wasn’t over. It still isn’t over!” These cheesy lines might make viewers roll their eyes, but you still can’t get enough of them.