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The Best of Me

The Best of Me

Drama · Romance · 2014

A pair of former high school sweethearts reunite after many years when they return to visit their small hometown.

Movie details

The Best of Me

“You never forget your first love.”

2014 Drama · Romance 1h 57m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

7.5 / 10

Community rating

A pair of former high school sweethearts reunite after many years when they return to visit their small hometown.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Best of Me?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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The Choice

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Travis and Gabby first meet as neighbors in a small coastal town and wind up in a relationship that is tested by life's most defining events.

Love Everlasting

Love Everlasting

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Bridger is a young outsider who's always wanted more. He and his mother flee an abusive home, eventually finding a small town in the middle of nowhere. Once there, Bridger finds true acceptance with another misfit.

The Way We Were

The Way We Were

Drama · 1973

Opposites attract when, during their college days, Katie Morosky, a politically active Jew, meets Hubbell Gardiner, a feckless WASP. Years later, in the wake of World War II, they meet once again and, despite their obvious differences, attempt to make their love for each other work.

The Fugitive Kind

The Fugitive Kind

Romance · 1960

Val Xavier, a drifter of obscure origins, arrives at a small town and gets a job in a store run by Lady Torrence. Her husband, Jabe M. Torrance, is dying of cancer. Val is pursued by Carol Cutere, the enigmatic local tramp-of-good-family.

Endless Love

Endless Love

Drama · 2014

A privileged girl and a charismatic boy's instant desire sparks a love affair made only more reckless by parents trying to keep them apart.

Life in a Year

Life in a Year

Drama · 2020

A 17 year old finds out that his girlfriend is dying, so he sets out to give her an entire life, in the last year she has left.

Mansfield Park

Mansfield Park

Romance · 1999

Fanny Price is sent to live with her wealthy relatives, the Bertrams, where she is treated poorly by most except her cousin Edmund. Her life is complicated by the arrival of the worldly Mary and Henry Crawford.

The Sleeping Dictionary

The Sleeping Dictionary

Drama · 2003

In the 1930s, British officer John Truscott journeys to a remote village in colonial Malaysia to educate and Westernize the local Iban population. There, he's introduced to the lovely Selima. In keeping with tradition, Selima is assigned to sleep with Truscott and teach him the native language and customs. But when they fall in love, both colonists and natives object to their plans to marry.

After

After

Drama · 2019

Tessa Young is a dedicated student, dutiful daughter and loyal girlfriend to her high school sweetheart. Entering her first semester of college, Tessa's guarded world opens up when she meets Hardin Scott, a mysterious and brooding rebel who makes her question all she thought she knew about herself -- and what she wants out of life.

Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Michael Hoffman

Written by

Will Fetters · J. Mills Goodloe

Michelle Monaghan

Michelle Monaghan

Amanda Collier

James Marsden

James Marsden

Dawson Cole

Luke Bracey

Luke Bracey

Younger Dawson Cole

Liana Liberato

Liana Liberato

Young Amanda Collier

Gerald McRaney

Gerald McRaney

Tuck Hostetler

Caroline Goodall

Caroline Goodall

Evelyn

Clarke Peters

Clarke Peters

Morgan Dupree

Court is in session

Put The Best of Me on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.