Nicholas Sparks Movies Ranked

Critics Consensus: Schmaltzy, predictable, and melodramatic, Safe Haven also suffers from a ludicrous plot twist, making for a particularly ignominious Nicholas Sparks adaptation.

Synopsis: Katie Feldman moves to a small town on the North Carolina coast, determined to make a new life for herself. She takes a job as... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Josh Duhamel, Julianne Hough, Cobie Smulders, David Lyons

Directed By: Lasse Hallström

Critics Consensus: As shamelessly manipulative as any Nicholas Sparks production, The Last Song is done no favors by its miscast and overmatched star, Miley Cyrus.

Synopsis: Estranged from her father (Greg Kinnear) for a number of years, teenage Ronnie (Miley Cyrus) isn't pleased when her mother ships her and her younger... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Miley Cyrus, Greg Kinnear, Liam Hemsworth, Kelly Preston

Directed By: Julie Anne Robinson

Critics Consensus: While it provides the requisite amount of escapist melodrama, The Lucky One ultimately relies on too many schmaltzy clichés to appeal to anyone not already familiar with the Nicholas Sparks formula.

Synopsis: U.S. Marine Sgt. Logan Thibault returns home from his third tour of duty in Iraq with the one thing he believes kept him alive: a... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Zac Efron, Taylor Schilling, Blythe Danner, Riley Thomas Stewart

Directed By: Scott Hicks

Critics Consensus: Though wholesome, the Mandy Moore vehicle A Walk to Remember is also bland and oppressively syrupy.

Synopsis: Set in North Carolina, "A Walk To Remember" follows the rite of passage of a jaded, aimless high school senior (Shane West) who falls in... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Shane West, Mandy Moore, Peter Coyote, Daryl Hannah

Directed By: Adam Shankman

Critics Consensus: Built from many of the same ingredients as other Nicholas Sparks tearjerkers, Dear John suffers from its cliched framework, as well as Lasse Hallstrom's curiously detached directing.

Synopsis: When soldier John Tyree meets an idealistic college student, Savannah Curtis, it's the beginning of a strong romance. Over the next seven years, separated by... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Channing Tatum, Amanda Seyfried, Richard Jenkins, Henry Thomas

Directed By: Lasse Hallström

Critics 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.

Synopsis: When Adrienne Willis arrives at the coastal town of Rodanthe, N.C., her life is in chaos. There, she hopes to sort through the trouble surrounding... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Richard Gere, Diane Lane, Christopher Meloni, Viola Davis

Directed By: George C. Wolfe

Critics Consensus: Handsome-looking but dramatically inert, Message in a Bottle maroons a formidable cast in a trite romance that lacks spark.

Synopsis: During her morning jog on the beach, journalist Theresa Osborne (Robin Wright Penn) discovers a bottle protruding from the sand. Inside it, she finds a... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Kevin Costner, Robin Wright, Paul Newman, John Savage

Directed By: Luis Mandoki

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: A widow (Lauren Ambrose) resorts to desperate measures to protect her three children and her land during the Civil War.

Starring: Lauren Ambrose, Wes Ramsey, Yaani King Mondschein, Caitlin Custer

Directed By: Jon Amiel

Critics Consensus: It's hard not to admire its unabashed sentimentality, but The Notebook is too clumsily manipulative to rise above its melodramatic clichés.

Synopsis: In the 1940s South Carolina, mill worker Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling) and rich girl Allie (Rachel McAdams) are desperately in love. But her parents don't... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, James Garner, Gena Rowlands

Directed By: Nick Cassavetes