F*cking Nicholas Sparks.

I watched the movie- The Longest Ride last night. Momma and I have been trying to watch it since last Friday (Aunt Poot sent it home with Momma and insisted that I watch it), but we were busy and things got in the way, so we decided to give it a go yesterday evening. She ended up crashing out and going to bed before it was over, but I stayed up to watch it. And do you know what I thought about it? It was a really good movie. I'm not one of those mushy, gushy, hyper-sensitive girls, but this one got me. If you've never heard of it, let me let you in on it a little bit.

I posted this one on social media- Friday- with every intention of watching it before Monday. I tagged Dea in it, because I knew she'd love a good (or not so good, in this case) "cheesy" photo.

(SEMI-MAJOR) SPOILER ALERTS:
Basically, I'm going to recap this whole movie.

Luke is a top ranked national bull riding champion, that gets thrown from a bull (Rango) and suffers severe head trauma. A year later, he begins riding in competitions again (again Doctors orders), because he wants to get back to the top and prove to himself and everyone else that he's the best. At that competition he meets Sophia, a college student and art major, who leaves for New York City in two months.

They have their first date where Sophia tells Luke about New York and they agree that their relationship can't go anywhere, but on their way home they run across a car wreck and pull an elderly man (Ira) and a box from his car and rush him to the hospital. Over the next few days Sophia continuously visits Ira, where he begins to tell her the story of him and the love of his life (Ruth), while she reads him all of their letters that are in the box that she had saved.

Luke finds a picture that had fallen out of the box and returns it to Ira at the hospital, where he happily runs into Sophia and Ira tells them more of his and Ruth's story. Luke and Sophia decided to see each other and see where things go. As you can probably guess, they fall in love, some sexy time ensues (who can blame her?), they run into serious heartache and discover how much they love and need each other.

Luke gets hurt (again- and the doctor says he's putting his life in serious jeopardy) and Sophia gives up New York to stay with him. He however, says he's going to continue to ride and they break up. Sophia goes to Ira, devastated and asks him to distract her by telling her more of him and Ruth's story (By the way, just as good, if not better- probably better- story than Luke and Sophia's). He finishes telling her their story, how they loved each other more than anything, how they had hardships (they wanted kids and couldn't have any, because of any injury Ira had sustained in WWII- although they did have a young boy (Daniel) that they cared for for awhile and then was taken away by his guardians, effectively breaking their hearts and causing Ruth to leave, Ira letting her because he just wanted her happiness, and her returning and them knowing they loved each other no matter what), because love isn't perfect, but if it's real, it's worth it and how they had collected all of their art over the years, before growing old together and Ruth passing away, peacefully in her sleep.

 I also wrote this on FB after I finished the movie and of course had to tag my girls- Dea and Betty Lynn.

Sophia and Ira have a love for each other, like a granddaughter and grandfather, and after they talk Sophia goes to school (college). The next day she receives a phone call from a guy telling her that Ira had passed away, she is understandably devastated, but agrees to come to the art auction, as requested by Ira in his will.

Luke makes it to the championship and draws Rango (the bull that he almost died on) from the cup to ride. He stays on for 8 seconds, riding beautifully and winning the championship. As he's standing in the arena looking around after just doing his 8, he looks for Sophia and remembers that she's not there and isn't going to be. He walks out of the arena, handing a young boy his bells, passed all the sponsors that are trying to recruit him and straight to Ira's art auction that he had also gotten an invitation for. He runs inside and the first painting is up, it's a portrait of Ruth by Daniel McDonald (the little boy they had cared for; he had remembered them and had loved Ruth). No one wanted to bid on it, because it wasn't worth any money, so Luke bids on it (the only bid) and wins it for Sophia. He signs off on it, Luke tells Sophia that he's done with riding, the two confess their love for each other and they reconcile, deciding that they love each other and will figure it out, because they're worth it. (Aww).

Then there's commotion in the auction room and the auctioneer reveals that there is a clause in Ira's will that states- "Ruth gave me more happiness than anyone deserves in a lifetime. This portrait isn't worth anything to anyone else, but it was to me and was always my favorite, because it captured her beauty. Whomever buys this, gets the whole collection." Which means Luke is now the proud owner of millions of dollars of artwork. Everyone wants to buy them all from him, but they decide what to do together. Luke opens the "Ira and Ruth Levinson Museum", Sophia runs it and they live on their ranch together. Basically, they live out both of their dreams together, with the memory of Ira helping to guide them. It ends perfectly.

And what do I have to say about this amazing movie that I loved and that touched my heart? F*#% you, Nicholas Sparks. How you gonna play all of us like that? You've been screwing with my emotions ever since Landon and Jamie!! They don't make guys like that and you know it! In all fairness though, I'm not as awesome as any of those girls, so there's that. But I like to keep my emotions and feelings buried deep down in the pit of my stomach.....WHERE THEY BELONG!! And you always bring out the hopeless romantic in me and make me cry. Ass.

P.s. I kid, I really don't have anything against Nicholas Sparks, I like his stories :)