Everything is painfully set up and contrived, while almost none of it seems even passingly real. In its favor, however, the movie looks good and the stars are appealing.
Comment
09/30/08
Nights in Rodanthe (2008)
31
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:126
Fresh:39
Rotten:87
Average Rating:4.7/10
Consensus: Derivative and schmaltzy, Nicholas Sparks' Nights in Rodanthe is strongly mottled by contrivances that even the charisma of stars Diane Lane and Richard Gere can't repair.
Theatrical Release:10-10-2008
Synopsis: Diane Lane and Richard Gere team up for the third time (after COTTON CLUB and UNFAITHFUL) for this three-hankie romance based on a Nicholas Sparks novel. Adrienne Willis (Lane) feels her life... [More]
Starring: Richard Gere, Diane Lane, Scott Glenn, Christopher Meloni
Director: George C Wolfe
Reviews for Nights in Rodanthe
...Lifetime Television with a Steven Spielberg budget.
09/29/08
Sure its soapy and saccharine but that is exactly what Nicholas Sparks' fans want
09/29/08
Typical Sparks formula: difficult circumstances, unlikely love, delirious joy, gut-wrenching tragedy, and redemptive moral. Unfortunately, this film doesn't deliver the goods.
09/29/08
Richard Gere and Diane Lane are swathed in so much cheese in Nights in Rodanthe, this weepy story should unfold in Wisconsin instead of a tiny strip of land off the coast of North Carolina.
09/29/08
Another sappy soap opera for Nicholas Sparks fans satisfied by panoramic seascapes offset intermittently by lingering interludes of dysfunctional strangers locking lips and loins.
09/28/08
perfectly calibrated to jerk tears with the precision of the atomic clock at the U.S. Naval Observatory, and with the irresistible insistence of an industrial grade milking machine
09/28/08
Nice performances can't save this dull movie from its bum script.
09/27/08
'Nights in Rodanthe' serves up too much manipulated sentimentality for my taste, even though I admit being incurably romantic most of the time.
09/27/08
Despite stretches of credulity in the plot, the on-screen chemistry between Gere and Lane carries the movie.
09/27/08
I was pretty well braced for everything to come, but man, that scene with the daughter at the end still got me. Damn you, Nicholas Sparks, and your magical tear jerking super powers!
09/26/08
...[A] moping melodramatic malaise. Ridiculously artificial in its Cupid-driven cornucopia of sketchy endearment. [Rodanthe] has the forceful flair of an unlit wax candle.
09/26/08
When the script veers into Sparks' slap-in-the-face melodrama, including two natural disasters, the movie drowns in corn syrup.
09/26/08
Nights in Rodanthe starts slow, stalls in the middle, and by the time the tragedy hits, a slideshow with still photographs set to music would seem faster.
09/26/08
I imagine that the Nicholas Sparks fan base is going to eat this movie up. However, for myself, it was one of the most boring movies of the year.
09/26/08
Vomit inducing, treacly nonsense.
09/26/08
Richard Gere suffers less than Diane Lane. He gets by with a mixture of skill and self-irony. She acts up a storm in every scene, but you root for the hurricane.
09/26/08
This is one of the increasingly rare Hollywood films that treat people in middle age as though their feelings were just as intense and their needs just as valid as those of people half their age.
09/26/08
The major highlight is the awkward, out-of-step dialogue between Lane and Gere as their budding relationship morphs from wariness to friendliness to love.
09/26/08
What really sells this three-hanky tear-jerker -- and there were a lot of women buying it during a recent screening -- is Lane's steely and vulnerable performance. Like Tinker Bell, she almost made me believe in fairies. Almost.
09/26/08
Latest News for Nights in Rodanthe
February 09, 2009:
RT on DVD: Oliver's W, Spike's St. Anna, and My Name is Bruce!
What better way to celebrate the inauguration of President Barack Obama by watching Oliver Stone's W. this week on DVD? While a handful of middling studio releases hit home... More...
January 21, 2009:
Five Favourite Films with James Franco
Having established his name in the Spider-Man movies, these days James Franco is clearly making some more personal career choices. He was in three films in 2008, notable for... More...
September 28, 2008:
Richard Gere and Diane Lane reunite to co-star in latest adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks romance novel. 
More...
September 25, 2008:
Critics Consensus: Eagle Eye Doesn't Soar, St. Anna No Miracle
This week at the movies, we've got middle-aged love (Nights in Rodanthe, starring Richard Gere and Diane Lane); techno terror (Eagle Eye, starring Shia LaBeouf and Michelle... More...
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
Fresh Links
Featured
RT on YouTube
Subscribe to RT's YouTube channel and don't miss a second of our cracking video content.
RT on Twitter
Follow Rotten Tomatoes and join us as we tweet about the week's releases.
IGN RSS Feeds