The Lucky One

Zac Efron stars in this slick, corny and comfortingly undemanding romantic drama from Shine director Scott Hicks. It's based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook, Dear John), and while it pushes all the big emotional buttons, the best that can really be said is that it allows Efron another decent opportunity to distance himself from those fluffy High School Musical movies. A buff-looking Efron plays Logan, a US marine who attributes several lucky escapes in Iraq to the photo of a mystery woman that he found there. Back in the States, he resolves to find out just who his guardian angel is. She turns out to be kennels-owning divorced mum Beth (Taylor Schilling), whose baggage includes a dead marine brother and an obnoxious, bullyboy ex-husband who just happens to be a deputy sheriff. Complexities are compounded by Logan's daft inability to just come right out and tell Beth who he is and why he's there. Efron looks good, and is a perfectly decent actor; Schilling is even better and marks herself out as an actress to watch. However, The Lucky One is only mildly diverting while you're watching it, and doesn't linger long in the memory.