Nights in Rodanthe (2008)

A doctor, who is travelling to see his estranged son, sparks with an unhappily married woman at a North Carolina inn.

Director:

George C. Wolfe

Writers:

Ann Peacock (screenplay), John Romano (screenplay)

Stars:

Diane Lane, Richard Gere, Christopher Meloni

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Richard Gere	...	Paul
Diane Lane	...	Adrienne
Christopher Meloni	...	Jack
Viola Davis	...	Jean
Becky Ann Baker	...	Dot
Scott Glenn	...	Robert Torrelson
Linda Molloy	...	Jill Torrelson
Pablo Schreiber	...	Charlie Torrelson
Mae Whitman	...	Amanda Willis
Charlie Tahan	...	Danny Willis
Carolyn McCormick	...	Jenny
Ted Manson	...	Old Gus
Ato Essandoh	...	Jean's Lover
Terri Denise Johnson	...	Medical Resident
Jessica Lucas	...	Admiring Nurse

Storyline

Adrienne Willis, a woman with her life in chaos, retreats to the tiny coastal town of Rodanthe, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, to tend to a friend's inn for the weekend. Here she hopes to find the tranquility she so desperately needs to rethink the conflicts surrounding her -- a wayward husband who has asked to come home, and a teen-aged daughter who resents her every decision. Almost as soon as Adrienne gets to Rodanthe, a major storm is forecast and a guest named Dr. Paul Flanner arrive. The only guest at the inn, Flanner is not on a weekend escape but rather is there to face his own crisis of conscience. Now, with the storm closing in, the two turn to each other for comfort and, in one magical weekend, set in motion a life-changing romance that will resonate throughout the rest of their lives...

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Plot Keywords:

inn | north carolina | death | infidelity | surgeon | 

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Taglines:

It's never too late for a second chance

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some sensuality

Did You Know?

Trivia

By January 2010, shoreline erosion had left the Serendipity house completely in the surf. New owners hired one of the companies that moved the Cape Hatteras lighthouse to move Serendipity to a somewhat less spectacular, but somewhat safer nearby lot in Rodanthe. Only the house's exterior appears in the film - the interiors existed only in a studio. The owners reportedly plan to remodel the house, re-creating the studio interiors, to enhance its value as a vacation rental.

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Goofs

The wild horses do not exist where the movie takes place. They are actually about 60 miles north near Corolla. They would have to swim across a wide inlet to get to Rodanthe from Corolla. Another herd of these wild horses is on Ocracoke Island, about 35 miles south, but are penned in for their protection. Another herd of these wild horses are located on the Cape Lookout National Seashore, and freely roam between Cape Lookout, Shackleford Banks, and Carrot Island, near Beaufort, NC.

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Quotes

Adrienne Willis: I know you've only ever known your father and me. And I love Jack, because he is your father. But there's another kind of love, Amanda. One that gives you the courage to be better than you are, not less than you are. One that makes you feel that anything is possible. I want you to know that you could have that. I want you to hold out for it.

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Connections

Referenced in Big Mouth: My Furry Valentine (2019)

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Soundtracks

A Rockin' Good Way (To Mess Around and Fall in Love)
Written by Brook Benton, Clyde Otis, and Luchi De Jesus (as Luchi DeJesus)
Performed by Dinah Washington & Brook Benton
Courtesy of The Verve Music Group
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

Nights in Rodanthe isn't a night to remember by any means.

Starting off with a promising first act with lightly interesting and developed characters, rich in personality and with hints of chemistry between the two love interests, Nights in Rodanthe is a train wreck if ever there was on; giving meaning to the fact that even if a movie starts out well, it can end up in the gutter pretty quickly. Following on from the opening, the movie then resorts to cheap melodramatic contrivances, and demeans both its characters and performers by negating their roles to mere romantic plot devices used to set up act three's ridiculously sappy ending. The middle act, which finds both characters slowly falling for each other, isn't all that bad, and while it does get irksome towards the end, even such a closing would have saved the movie from being a complete disaster. Nevertheless, with a few moments of interest, usually inherent in the performance of Gere, Nights in Rodanthe isn't without its positives, but you certainly have to do a lot of looking to find them.

As a romantic drama, Nights tries to do one thing and one thing only and that is to make with the mushy. Director George C. Wolfe in his big screen debut here opts to take this to an extreme however, and even goes to the point of rejecting any focus at all on characters past the half-way mark. After this point, Nights in Rodanthe turns into a holiday from hell. Mawkish, banal and overly pretentious, both Wolfe and the writers here adopt a tone of whimsy light-headedness that often clashes with the story's much more serious (at least, that's what it tries to be) subplot involving a death caused by one of these characters. What's more annoying is that the movie's earlier sequences, which although clearly unfocused and seemingly directionless, at least had some humanity present in its central figures, these earlier moments of promise are forgotten. After forty minutes or so, all that's left for Wolfe to do is to drag on the romance as far as he can to the point where we're no longer watching real people fall in love, we're simply watching an outline for a romance movie. Character A and Character B going through the motions… Yawn. Haven't we done this before? To be fair both performers try and make the best of their undoubtedly tricky situation. Throughout there are moments of genuine chemistry between both Gere and Lane, and while the romance isn't exactly palpable enough to sustain much interest past the halfway mark, they at least keep the thing going as best as they can. Essentially however you get the feeling that both would rather be somewhere else; in between these instances of chemistry are scenes which fail to deliver any emotion whatsoever, even though the director seems sure that what he's doing is going to get your eyes watery. The truth is, Nights in Rodanthe is a sappy, overly emotional romantic drama; so much so that it's absurd. I can't feel for these people and I can't feel for their petty outbreaks of self-loathing angst. When I begin arguing with characters in my head whilst I'm obviously supposed to be feeling pity for them, I disconnect; it's over. Stop trying to engage me. This happened an hour into Nights in Rodanthe, and although I could have been won back, sadly it only gets worse from there.

It's hard to see why anyone would enjoy such a film. Sure enough if you're a major fan of "weepies", for some reason enjoy watching people cry a lot and don't mind romance that feels generic and predictable then you might just get something from Nights, but even then you'll probably feel under-whelmed. There's no denying I had hope for this film; with Gere and Lane helming what looked to be a mature love story, I figured the worst that could happen would be if I was subjected to a teaspoon of fairy tale whimsy. Unfortunately however, I did get that, and I also got a shallow, unremarkable feature that was essentially a few scenes drawn out far too long with a third act that wasn't necessary or even enjoyable in the slightest. Some decent individual performances throughout, but with limited chemistry and an overwritten, overly romanticised script, Nights in Rodanthe isn't a night to remember by any means.

• A review by Jamie Robert Ward (http://www.invocus.net)

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan] Official site [United States]

Country:

USA Australia

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

26 September 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

Nights in Rodanthe

Filming Locations:

Carolina Beach, North Carolina, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$30,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$13,418,454, 28 September 2008

Gross USA:

$41,850,659

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$84,375,346

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures, DiNovi Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1