(PCM) In The Best of Me, Nicholas Sparks begs the question in yet another memorable tearjerker: Does everything happen for a reason when two former high school sweethearts are brought together by the death of a man they both loved?
Dawson and Amanda are two former high school sweethearts, who are reunited after 20 years apart, when they return to their small Louisiana town for the funeral of a beloved friend. Amanda is unhappily married with a son, while Dawson is recovering from an accident on an oil rig that should have killed him. When the two first meet, there is recrimination, but they quickly get past it and reignite the love they’ve never forgotten.
But even as they find happiness in each other, they soon discover that the forces that drove them apart initially, pose an even more serious threat in their present day.
James Marsden and Michelle Monaghan play the adult Dawson and Amanda, while 
Luke Bracey and Liana Liberato play the couple as teens. The Best of Me, directed by Michael Hoffman from on a script by Will Fetters and J. Mills Goodloe, adapted from Sparks’ bestselling book, opens in theaters on October 17.
At a press day for the movie, Marsden, Monaghan and Bracey talk about the movies’ themes, creating the chemistry necessary to film a convincing love story, the popularity of Sparks’ novels, and more.
Can you go home again? Can you rekindle an old relationship?
Michelle: I haven’t personally done it. Sure Why not? I think people change over the course of their life. I don’t think you are the same person that you were when you were 16 or 17. People change and adapt as a result of life experience. If you have that opportunity, if you have that second chance, you might just be able to find yourself in the position to do that. I am a wishful thinker.
James: I think nowadays, especially with social media, it is much easier to social media your high schools sweetheart. I think you will find a lot of people doing that these days. One of the things as humans is we like to look at the road not traveled, and romanticize about what that might have been. Would your life be richer or more fulfilled had you taken a left instead of a right? I think that’s what the movie explores.
Michelle, your character has had a lot of complications in her life: she’s lost a child, she lost the love of her life, and she’s in a bad marriage. Can you talk about your emotional journey in this?
Michelle: When I first read the script, it really touched me. I think that’s the wonderful thing about being an actor, you get to insert yourself in a character, and go on this emotional journey, whether it’s reading something that’s 300 pages, or going to the theater and watching something for two hours. I love this character because she was complicated and she was conflicted. There’s this part of her that she’s lost, and from the outside, she looks like she’s got the ideal life, but truly there’s something missing inside as a result of all this life experience.
You two have such a great onscreen chemistry. What was it like to work so closely together?
Michelle: It was just easy.
James: We had a good time. Some people think it has to be miserable to shoot a movie; 
it has to be a tough experience. It can really be an enjoyable one, especially on a movie like this where it really is all about the chemistry. I’m going to speak like Michelle’s not in the room right now, but she’s like this beacon of light. She’s got so much energy, and cares so much about the material, but she also cares so much about the process, and wants to enjoy it. And, like my character, you’re drawn to that. It was very easy being around her.
Michael, our wonderful director, created such a nice tone on set. He allowed us a couple weeks of rehearsal time to get to know one another, but also to get the scenes up on their feet, and see how they felt. That was invaluable, so I thank him for that. It was nice to have a good dynamic with your co-star, and have that bleed into the performances.
James, did you coordinate your performance with Luke since you were playing the same person but at different ages?
Luke: We sat down. The time that Michael allowed us was priceless, sitting down with the director and the co-star, someone playing the same part as you, it was an advantage that you don’t get very often. I think being able to sit down with James and go over certain physical characteristics, it was really interesting to me. It was a different way to work on a character.
James: Talking about physical characteristics, I kept trying to get Luke to stop working out. I was, “Enough already! You’re making me look bad.” I would haze him. I told him, “Now, Luke, in this scene, when I take a drink, I like to put my pinkie up.” I made him think he had to echo that. Actually, Luke and Liana came in early and did most of the work. They went in and set the characters first so I just followed Luke.
Michael was a real advocate of getting the voice to sound similar and maybe a few mannerisms here and there, but I don’t think we ever got too hung up on being a carbon copy of one another. As Michelle said earlier, over 20 years you do change a bit. Again, we were lucky to have a couple of weeks of rehearsal, which for a lot of movies you don’t usually get the luxury. We were able to work all that out so it was really helpful to us.
James, this is your second film based on a Nicholas Sparks movie, with “The Notebook” being the first. How much of a fan of Nicholas Sparks are you and what do you think it is about his stories that people love?
James: I try to work my way into a Nicholas Sparks film every decade. It’s a great career move. (laughs) What he does so wonderfully is he tells these unapologetically romantic timeless love stories, and I think that never gets old. It’s always something people want to see and he does it so well. He keys into the desires of women. The male characters in these stories adore these women. I think that’s one of the several elements to their success. For me, it’s nice to be part of a film that’s about human connection, emotion and loss and heartache and joy and all these things that you don’t always get to explore in films these days when you’re wearing a superhero costume, surrounded by giant green screen.
Michelle: They’re very rarely made—an adult drama, a love story. To be honest, this is the first opportunity that I’ve had to be in a love story. They just don’t make them. for me, who better to go down this road with than Nick Sparks?
The Best of Me opens in theaters on Friday, October 17.
The post James Marsden and Michelle Monaghan Rekindle Romance in ‘The Best of Me’ also appeared on PCM Reviews.