‘Nights in Rodanthe’: Contrived Hollywood Archetype Seeks Same

Nicolas Sparks is the Stephen King of the mush-brained romantic novel and, like the prolific schlockmeister of “Carrie,” “Pet Sematary,” and “The Stand,” the author has found true love in Hollywood. Producers can’t option his four-hankie epics of transformational passion fast enough. “Nights in Rodanthe” is the fourth big-screen adaptation of Mr. Sparks’s work, following “The Notebook,” “Message in a Bottle,” and “A Walk To Remember.” Like those movies, “Nights in Rodanthe” offers the kind of broad, bathetic platform for sweepingly emotive hoo-hah that a certain breed of former A-list actor craves like opium.