By Kayla Cohen

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“The Lucky One,”  is the story of a sergeant in the Marines, Logan (played by Zac Efron,) who finds a photograph of a beautiful girl named Beth (played by Taylor Schilling) in the rubble after a night raid. After keeping the photo as a good luck charm, and narrowly escaping death on numerous occasions, Logan promises himself he is going to find that woman and thank her for saving his life. And that is exactly what he does.

Like most of the Nicholas Sparks’ novels turned into films, “The Lucky One” does stray a bit from the original storyline.

In the novel, the photograph of Beth is with two men in front of a ferris wheel. Also, the back of the photo says “Keep Safe, E.” In the film, Beth is standing by herself with a lighthouse in the distance and the back of the photo says “Keep Safe, X.”

The location also differs. In the novel, the story takes place in North Carolina, but in the movie it is located in Louisiana.

A huge difference is that in the novel Logan’s dog saves Beth’s son’s life, but in the movie the son is saved by his father.

My only big complaint is that the film also lacks the chemistry between the main characters as shown in the novel. The lack of intimate scenes is understandable, since the rating was PG-13. But, this film just didn’t show the heart-wrenching chemistry like in the other Sparks’ movies. Efron and Schilling’s romance just didn’t cut it this time.

Is “The Lucky One” one of Nicholas Sparks’ best adaptations? Sadly not. But then again, every movie can’t have a love like in “The Notebook.”

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