I would call this film "serviceable". It accomplishes what it sets out to, hits all the Sparks marks, but just didn't pull me in. I took issue with how it tried too hard to be too many things, never really satisfying all of them in the end. The dual storyline is handled well in the first half, but after a bit I found myself not caring at all about the current-day characters. The trailers may have promoted the film as the story of a bull rider and young woman finding love despite being from different worlds, but reality is it's a love story about a couple that meet in the early 1940's, as described to a young couple, with a few brief sequences of bull riding thrown in. It succeeds more in its historical fiction than it does as a modern romance or a sports film. The message of the story is clear by the end, as is the case with Nicholas Sparks films, but the movie is unfortunately dull and all over the place.

2.5 Stars (out of 5)