Remember how in The NeverEnding Story, a boy reads a mysterious book that comes to life before his eyes, plunging him into a thrilling adventure in an alternate universe? Watching a new movie from Nicholas Sparks, the romance author whose film adaptations are constantly slithering into multiplexes, is kinda like that, if instead of a badass adventure story with flying dog-dragons, you fell into a fancy plate with an inspirational quote on it. by Alison Hallett