We are all aware of the written formula that Nicholas Sparks is known for when it comes to heart-wrenching love stories. There’s a guy and a girl, both who are ridiculously attractive, and they fall in love in some crazy, non-realistic, cliche way. Of course, it can never be that simple. There are always complications with either parent’s approval, ex or current spouses or a terminal disease, but eventually the two lovebirds find their way back to each other. “The Choice” is written no differently.

There’s a guy, Travis Shaw, played by Ben Walker, and a girl, Gabby Holland, played by Teresa Palmer. Both actors are easy on the eyes, no surprise there, and their acting was okay, nothing superb. Ben is a veterinarian with a playboy reputation in a small North Carolina town who becomes acquainted with Gabby when she moves next door to him. Gabby is, of course, engaged to another man, Ryan, played by Tom Welling. Ben and Gabby fall in love in true Sparks fashion and there are unsurprisingly a few bumps in their otherwise perfect love story road. That’s pretty much it.

The movie in general was your typical Sparks love story. Nothing new, nothing interesting and definitely nothing special. What kept my interest were the actors. I mean, they really were some good-looking people. The movie plot itself had its moments but it was all cliche; a kind of been-there-seen-that sort of thing. I felt like I was watching similar scenes that were from other Sparks movies. Overall, I give this movie a B- for its effort to try to be different, even though it ended up being indistinctive from the others.