When a mysterious young woman named Katie appears in the small North Carolina town of Southport her sudden arrival raises questions about her past. Beautiful yet self-effacing Katie seems determined to avoid forming personal ties until a series of events draws her into two reluctant relationships one with Alex a widowed store owner with a kind heart and two young children and another with her plainspoken single neighbor Jo. Despite her reservations Katie slowly begins to let down her guard putting down roots in the close-knit community and becoming increasingly attached to Alex and his family. But even as Katie begins to fall in love she struggles with the dark secret that still haunts and terrifies her . . . a past that set her on a fearful shattering journey across the country to the sheltered oasis of Southport. With Jos empathic and stubborn support Katie eventually realizes that she must choose between a life of transient safety and one of riskier rewards . . . and ...
Review
A few years ago Lasse Hallstrom first adapted a Nicholas Sparks novel when he made Dear John which I remember enjoying enough to give a 9 here. So this is now his second time doing so and once again I enjoyed the results. Julianne Hough plays a woman running from the law who starts anew in a small town. While there he meets a nice man who works at a general store. He's played by Josh Duhamel. I'll stop there and just say there are some twists that I didn't see coming including one involving that of neighbor Cobie Smulders who I'm familiar with from the TV show "How I Met Your Mother". Overall this was quite a touching and thrilling movie courtesy of once again Sparks and Hallstrom.