Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes
Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: Efron acquits himself reasonably well. Is he sexy enough to make credible a scene where Beth seems to have an orgasm while washing dishes and watching him lift bags of dog food? Maybe not, but, honestly, who could? Read more
James Rocchi, MSN Movies: ...a product that's rolled off the Nicholas Sparks assembly line with every ridiculous plot contortion hard-welded into the structure. Read more
A.O. Scott, New York Times: The sun breaks through the clouds, you smile through your tears, and your cynicism - even the tiny voice in your head crying out, "Wait, none of this makes any sense!" - is silenced by sweet music and swelling sentiment. Read more
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Unable as I am to locate any feelings about him, I see Mr. Efron as a hunk with a problem delivering sustained dialogue in units of more than one or two sentences. Read more
Keith Phipps, AV Club: When extraordinary coincidences drive a story just because no other elements step up to get the job done, it's hard not to feel jerked around. Read more
Barbara VanDenburgh, Arizona Republic: In "The Lucky One," an occasionally shirtless Zac Efron lifts heavy things, plays the piano, reads "Moby Dick," bonds with a small child and fixes a tractor. Puppies lick his face. Read more
Christy Lemire, Associated Press: You can roll your eyes, or you can give in. Read more
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Seeing [Schilling] and Efron fumble at each other is like watching a stick of butter and a bag of flour not turn into a cake. Read more
Tal Rosenberg, Chicago Reader: As long as Efron's shirt comes off, he could play an accountant and no one in the target audience would care. Read more
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The seventh and latest Sparks project to hit the screen, and the sixth one likely to elicit the response "Well, it's no 'Notebook.'" Read more
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: The trouble with the movie isn't that it's too girly-swoony; it's that it tries to achieve emotion through glowy sunsets and a paint-by-numbers script. Read more
William Goss, Film.com: Logan's opening voice-over describes how fate can throw one's life off-course, but nothing about the film that follows strays from Sparks' well-established tear-jerking formula... Read more
Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: There's no dramatic or visual scheme here, just random camera angles tossed and mixed. Read more
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: The Sparks-styled romance has almost become its own movie genre - predictable, pure of heart, sentimental and never straying from the boy-meets-girl basics, or the surface, for that matter - and in that "The Lucky One" delivers. Read more
Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News: "The Lucky One" left me stone cold. Read more
Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: Despite a plot hole so big it could generate its own gravity field, it's still not a bad movie. Read more
Rafer Guzman, Newsday: The overheated eroticism could have at least made for a camp classic, but the film's chilling narcissism ultimately makes for a pleasureless fantasy. Read more
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: There's not much to the movie besides handsome sets, sun-dappled photography and a plot as predictable as the verse in a Hallmark card. Read more
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: [Hicks] hits the beats - lonely woman, hunky stranger - without bothering to develop even the slightest depth. Read more
Sara Stewart, New York Post: I'm beginning to think writer Nicholas Sparks isn't one person at all, but a roomful of ladies doing Harlequin-romance Mad Libs. Read more
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: The latest screen adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks romance in which fate, destiny, and sage cliches whirl together in a sugar crash of meaningful moments and tasteful eroticism. Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The central love story is well-constructed for what it is; it offers the requisite amount of fantasy with just a miniscule dollop of realism. It's escapism for women and an adequate date flick. Or, to be more succinct, it's a Nicholas Sparks movie. Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: If you've ever liked a Nicholas Sparks movie, you're likely to enjoy this one. Read more
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: The Lucky One doesn't have a genuine emotion in it or a plausible reason to endure it. It's strictly for the sisters of the cult of Sparks and the men who love them. Read more
Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle: A lazy (in all ways) Nicholas Sparks romance that's as pretty and vacant as its hero. Read more
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Another Nicholas Sparks novel, another cinematic brush with insulin shock. Read more
Anna Smith, Time Out: Even taken as simple schmaltz, 'The Lucky One' lacks the romantic impact of the adaptation of Sparks's 'The Notebook' or even the Channing Tatum-starrer 'Dear John'. Read more
David Fear, Time Out: Like its performers, The Lucky One isn't bad, so much as achingly banal, the sort of instantly consumable and forgettable factory-produced love story that leaves you with no impression whatsoever. Read more
Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: How can bestselling author Nicholas Sparks, the Thomas Kinkade of the paperback novel, keep churning out sluggish melodramas that lose not one ounce of sap on the trip to the big screen? Read more
USA Today: The cliches are as thick as a vat of honey. And the love story proves just as syrupy. Read more
Peter Debruge, Variety: The trouble with destiny is that it leaves no room for surprise; ditto this safe midseason romancer. Read more
Chuck Wilson, Village Voice: No amount of neck nuzzling or back arching can make us believe there's real heat rising between these two. Read more
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: A sudsy romantic melodrama that in the 1950s would have been directed with lurid overkill by the likes of Douglas Sirk. Read more
Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: Well-acted schmaltz with some gaping plot holes. Read more