Blonde heroine witཧh de♊nim shorts and a dark past? Check.

Sensitive hunk with a tortured soul? Check.

Sundappled setting? Check.

You know what you’re getting in a Nicholas Sparks adaptation, but Las🌺se Hallström’s stab - in which Katie (Julianne Hough) escapes to a small seaside town and finds out love really does conquer all - is by the 𝔍numbers even by Sparks’ standards.

It’🅘s hard to imagine a blander duo than Hough and Josh Duhamel as they knock awkwardly against one another in their painfully telegraphed love scenes, and a third-act twist is unintentionally hilarious.