‘Forever My Girl’ is a formula romance.
Romance novelist and screenwriter Nicholas Sparks has cornered themarket on the subgenre he essentially invented — pleasant, epic romances in the South involving young, attractive, white, Christian, heterosexual couples.
These dramas appeal overwhelmingly to a female moviegoing audience, so it’s high time female filmmakers take their place behind the camera to shape the voices and perspectives in these stories. Writer-director Bethany AshtonWolf has done just that, adapting HeidiMcLaughlin’s novel for the new screen version of “Forever My Girl,” a tale of love lost and found.
Love is lost when homegrown Southern country music star Liam Page (Alex Roe) ditches his high school sweetheart, Josie (Jessica Rothe), at the altar during the frenzy surrounding his first hit single.
Years later, after he’s become the Justin Bieber of contemporary countrymu-
sic — instantly recognizable and pursued by mobs of photographers and rabid fans wherever he goes — sad news from his Louisiana hometown sets Liam on a course back home, much to the chagrin of his manager Sam (Peter Cambor) and Hollywood publicist Doris (Gillian Vigman).
Once he arrives, no one at home seems too pleased to see him— not his dad, nor Pastor Brian (John Benjamin Hickey) and definitely not Josie. When she sees him, she gives him a good, hard slug.
The only one who seems remotely interested is— drumroll!— 7-year-old Billy (Abby Ryder Fortson), who turns out to be the daughter Liam didn’t know he had. The precocious Billy becomes the catalyst for Liam and Josie to reunite, and for Liam to leave behind his badboy ways and embrace fatherhood. But Billy feels more like a plot device than a real character. Her dialogue is a bit too pointed, and her name is a reference to Liam’s late mother.
In trying to address “what happened,” the film gets twisted up in ham-handed psychological explanations. At some point, you wish the poor guy would just get some therapy.
Rothe and Roe have a palpable chemistry, and she makes the most of her role as a scorned Southern belle. “Forever My Girl” provides a fine showcase for the British hunk Roe and his piercing blue eyes.
The conflicts are resolved a bit too easily, but that works for the world of this film. With viewers seeking fluffy, escapist, country-tinged romance, it’ll hit a sweet spot.