Review: 'The Longest Ride' looks pretty, but looks aren't everything (2024)

Even with all “The Longest Ride’s” shots of the eye candy that is Scott Eastwood, Nicholas Sparks’ latest romance to make its tissue-sodden way to the big screen is a wash. A long one.

Montages of walks along the ocean, horseback rides through verdant meadows and Eastwood’s ever-present abs do provide endless pretty pictures. (In the looks department, Eastwood definitely does Daddy Clint proud.) But pretty pictures do not make a movie.

The two-plus hours is mostly marked by an emptiness born of scene after scene designed to blatantly manipulate emotions rather than trigger them.

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More disquieting is Sparks’ co-opting of the very compelling real-life story of Herb and Dorothy Vogel. The New York couple used Herb’s modest postal worker salary to amass a modern art collection of incredible value. Their achievement, recounted in Megumi Sasaki’s acclaimed 2008 documentary “Herb & Dorothy,” sparked an onslaught of publicity for the unassuming pair, who ultimately gave their entire collection to The National Gallery of Art where the public could see it for free, rather than sell it for millions.

A few details have been changed in both the book and the movie, including their names and their hometown, but the heart of their story becomes the uncredited heart of “The Longest Ride.”

Alan Alda plays 91-year-old Ira Levinson, who spends much of the salary he earns at the family’s haberdashery (Herb’s father was a tailor too) on his wife Ruth’s passion for paintings, amassing a major modern art collection of incredible value.

Director George Tillman Jr., who brought such a lovely restrained touch to the 2013 drama about two young inner city boys surviving a summer on their own in “The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete,” gets swamped by the sentiment that characterizes Sparks’ work. For fans of the book, screenwriter Craig Bolotin makes only minor adjustments. Adding intellect, insight or real romance are not among the changes.

Like “The Notebook,” the Sparks’ film adaptation that remains the best of a bad lot, “The Longest Ride” has two parallel love stories. One revolves around a newly minted couple, the hot, bull-riding, got-to-save-the-family-farm-for-my-widowed-mom Luke Collins (Eastwood), and the smart, grounded, still-recovering-from-a-broken-heart Sophia Danko (Britt Robertson).

Their meet cute comes after Luke’s win at a local bull-riding competition that Sophia’s college classmates have dragged her to — the promise of hot cowboys and line dancing are hard to turn down. Luke’s near-lethal ride a year ago on a fearsome bull named Rango starts playing out in flashbacks, as do so many other pieces of the puzzle. Rango, portrayed with a great deal of bucking brio by a real bull named Rango, is a muscular specimen in his own right, and gets almost as much love from the camera as Luke.

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Luke and Sophia’s official first date connects them to Ira when they spot his crashed car, and on closer inspection, discover a badly injured Ira inside. Luke saves the elderly man, pulling him from the burning auto. Sophia saves his precious box of love letters, and the entwining of their lives begins.

Alda, who can be so affecting, is given little to do except spend time in a hospital bed and provide a reason for flashbacks to Ira’s younger days. Most of what we know about him and his beloved Ruth is set in the post-World War II era. They plan to marry, but boot camp and his service delay things. The war injury that leaves Ira unable to give Ruth the big family she wants threatens to end their story. But this is a Nicholas Sparks production, so of course they make it through and begin collecting art instead.

Ruth and Ira’s younger selves are played by Jack Huston, the great John’s grandson, and Oona Chaplin, Charlie’s granddaughter and Eugene O’Neill’s great-granddaughter. It’s unclear between the family tree of Eastwood, Chaplin and Huston who would win the Hollywood A-list legacy battle.

Chaplin and Huston do a slightly better job of steaming up the screen than Eastwood and Robertson. It’s not so much the actors’ fault as those distracting Eastwood abs. I don’t think Huston ever gets a chance to join in the Calvin Klein-esque underwear shoot that is ready to spring into action any time Luke sheds his shirt.

In a nod to Jewish culture and history, we learn Ruth’s desire for family is tied to the loss of hers. Most of her relatives didn’t make it out of Austria once Hitler took control. That reveal comes as she and Ira walk home from a synagogue, moments that look remarkably like typical Southern Sunday go-to meeting scenes except for the “good Shabbats.”

Ira’s love letters, which Sophia keeps stopping by the hospital to read to him, become the key framing device to help Luke and Sophia work through their relationship issues. Both couples have conflicts that test their relationships. In fact, “The Longest Ride” is filled with many moments when it seems all might fall apart. But true to the Sparks’ literary formula, for Ira and Ruth, Luke and Sophia, it all works out in the end — which would only qualify as a spoiler if it didn’t.

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“The Longest Ride”

MPAA rating: PG-13 for some sexuality, partial nudity and some war and sports action

Running time: 2 hours, 19 minutes

Playing: In general release

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Review: 'The Longest Ride' looks pretty, but looks aren't everything (2024)

FAQs

What is the line from the longest ride? ›

If we'd never met, I think I would have known my life wasn't complete. And I would have wandered the world in search of you, even if I didn't know who I was looking for. After all, if there is a heaven, we will find each other again, for there is no heaven without you.

What is the message of the longest ride? ›

The Longest Ride examines specifically how opposites attract. Sparks uses two couples to explore the dynamics between people motivated only by a mystically powerful attraction to be together. Can they find their way to the comfort, stability, and consolation of emotional commitment? Defying the odds, they do.

Is The Longest Ride worth reading? ›

I would highly recommend you read the book. Larry Perryman If you enjoyed the movie, you'll likely love the book even more. The depth of detail, character development, and plot intricacies in the book far surpass what's possible in a movie adaptation.

What nationality is Ruth in The Longest Ride? ›

Ira was a small-town North Carolina boy. He quickly fell for Ruth, who'd fled with her Austrian Jewish family just before the war, and awkwardly tried to chat her up at temple. (“The Longest Ride” is, like all Sparks fare, super white, but at least the religious diversity is refreshing.)

Why is it called The Longest Ride? ›

The title of the annual Nicholas Sparks adaptation, The Longest Ride, could refer to any of three things: 1) The eight seconds necessary for rodeo riders to stay on a bull—a seemingly impossible duration atop the bucking, snorting, spittle-flinging monster named Rango. 2) Love.

How old is Scott Eastwood The Longest Ride? ›

On a recent afternoon, the 29-year-old heartthrob barrels into a conference room at Twentieth Century Fox after a morning of press for his new movie, “The Longest Ride,” where he plays a bull-wrangling cowboy.

Is The Longest Ride a sad ending? ›

There is a couple of sad parts, but for the most, it's a happy ending.

What happened to Ira and Ruth in The Longest Ride? ›

In flashbacks, Ira and Ruth also break up because she can't see a life with him without children in their future. However, weeks later, Ruth returns and they confess their love for one another. One morning, now eighty-years-old, Ira wakes up to find Ruth has died in her sleep.

Why did Ruth leave in The Longest Ride? ›

In flashbacks, Ira and Ruth break up because she cannot see a life without children in their future. However, weeks later, Ruth returns as she cannot live without Ira. Decades later, now 80 years old, Ira wakes up to find Ruth has died in her sleep.

Was The Longest Ride based on a true story? ›

No, The Longest Ride is not officially based on a true story but there's a conversation surrounding a possible reference. The film is an adaption of Nicholas Sparks' eponymous novel, and as reports suggest, Herb and Dorothy Vogel are the real-life couple who served as an inspiration for the story.

Why can't Ira have kids in The Longest Ride? ›

They go through the standard Southern courtship (the movie is set in North Carolina), with the bombing of Pearl Harbor Ira's cue to enlist. While in battle, he suffers a severe wound. To make matters worse, he develops an infection which renders him sterile.

What happened to Daniel in The Longest Ride? ›

After her funeral, Ira says that a woman showed up to his door, she is the wife of the young man Daniel they wanted to adopt. She reveals that he has passed on but was not only a teacher but professor at University College of London; she returned to America after he died.

Was Clint Eastwood's son in The Longest Ride? ›

This movie features three actors who are descendants of notable film directors: Scott Eastwood (son of Clint Eastwood), Jack Huston (grandson of John Huston), and Oona Chaplin (granddaughter of Charles Chaplin).

Why did Nicholas Sparks write The Longest Ride? ›

Inspiration. The story for The Longest Ride really began when I learned about Black Mountain College. I had been struggling to find something that excited me for my next novel when I came across a reference to the college online.

Do Luke and Sophia get married? ›

He has to choose what is most important to him in life and find a way to fix the mistakes that hurt the ones he loved so deeply. He starts dating Sophia Danko and the two get married and opened up a museum in honor of Ira Levinson and his late wife, Ruth.

What Disney ride has the longest line? ›

The Tower of Terror just had the perfect storm of people interested in the ride, forcing the wait time to be 480 minutes, the longest-ever recorded wait time at Disney World.

What is the longest land straight line? ›

It's nearly 20,000 miles long. What links a small town in Portugal and a huge port city in China? The answer may surprise even the inhabitants of both places: the world's longest straight line over land.

What is the longest running car line? ›

Cars With the Longest Production Runs of All Time
  • VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE – 65 YEARS.
  • CHEVROLET SUBURBAN – 83 YEARS (ONGOING)
  • FORD F-SERIES – 74 YEARS (ONGOING)
  • TOYOTA LAND CRUISER 70 YEARS (ONGOING)
  • MERCEDES-BENZ S CLASS 67 YEARS (ONGOING)

What is the longest straight line path? ›

Due to the curvature of the Earth, it was a question that was surprisingly difficult to answer. On land, the longest possible journey you can take in a straight line goes from Sagres, at the extreme end of Portugal to Jinjiang, on the East coast of China, a distance of 11,241km (6985 miles).

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