The Best of Me turns into a half-baked dramatic thriller, with violent confrontations, gunfights, plenty of nasty characters and one big scary action scene.

There's something heavy-handed, even for Sparks, in the telling of the couple's story, particularly when it comes to Dawson's family: they are leering, brutal embodiments of evil who function as handy plot devices.

The Best Of Me, like all Sparks' work, would rather kill his characters and leave a beautiful corpse than have them continue a real, scarred relationship.

Sparks' devoted following knows what it wants, and The Best of Me does not relent until it has delivered every last longing look, lovelorn lunge and lachrymose loss of luck.