You can be forgiven for thinking at first glance that "Forever My Girl" is the work of romance novelist and screenwriter Nicholas Sparks. After all, he essentially invented this subgenre — the exceedingly pleasant, Southern-set, epic love story.
But look again. In this case, writer/director Bethany Ashton Wolf has adapted Heidi McLaughlin's novel, a tale of love lost and found.
Love is lost when homegrown country pop star Liam Page (Alex Roe) ditches his high school sweetheart Josie (Jessica Rothe) at the altar during a frenzy surrounding his first hit single. Eight years later, he's become the Justin Bieber of country music, an instantly recognizable, overly entitled, enfant terrible pursued by rabid mobs of fans and photographers everywhere he goes.
Sad news from his hometown in Louisiana draws him back, much to the chagrin of his long-suffering manager Sam (Peter Cambor) and high-powered Hollywood publicist Doris (Gillian Vigman). No one at home seems to be all too pleased about his trip, either. Not his dad, Pastor Brian (John Benjamin Hickey), and definitely not his ex. The only one who seems remotely interested is — tell me you couldn't see this coming — his 7-year-old daughter, Billy (Abby Ryder Fortson), whose existence comes as a complete surprise to Liam.
Will the precocious Billy be the catalyst for Liam and Josie to reunite, and for Liam to leave his bad boy ways behind, embracing fatherhood? And, more to the point, do you really have to ask?
Rothe and Roe have a palpable chemistry. His Liam is tortured, bratty and ultimately broken, and she makes the most of her scorned Southern belle role. But Fortson's Billy never feels like a real character. Instead, she's simply a device to enable Liam to find himself. In trying to have him do that, the film twists itself up in ham-fisted psychological explanations. At a certain point, you wish the poor guy could just get some therapy.
"Forever My Girl" doesn't stray from the formula or do anything revolutionary. This is an uncomplicated romantic tale of a man trying to do right by the women in his life. But for an audience seeking fluffy, escapist, country music-tinged romance, it'll hit a sweet spot.
