Starring Zac Efron as Logan and Taylor Shilling as Beth, The Lucky One swept the audience away with every tear shed in the theater.

As we all know, Efron has been in all of the High School Musical movies, playing a lovestruck teenage boy fighting to keep his relationship going while battling an obnoxious blonde. In his lead role in 17 Again, Efron showed how he can come out of that teenager role by falling in love with an older women.

In The Lucky One, Efron proves just how mature he can be, playing an ex-Marine who falls in love with the girl in a picture he found during his third tour in Iraq. He then sets out to find her and learns to accept her flaws and the responsibility that comes with her having a son.

A wide range of emotions — sadness, happiness, fear and passion — are felt throughout the film. Efron acts out every emotion so perfectly, from the tearful moments to the happy upbeat ones, and finally to the one we all can relate to, that feeling that you might lose something you want so badly.

In what seems to be her biggest role so far, Shilling (Argo, Mercy) played her character Beth flawlessly. I didn’t know what to expect from her, but now I’m a big fan. She executed every emotion perfectly; when she was happy, the audience felt it; when she was sad, the audience felt it. Every emotion was so raw; her performance was impeccable.

The movie itself was just what I expected, with a few surprises. I had not read any reviews before I went, so I anticipated seeing the best romantic movie all year. Walking out of the movie I realized I had accomplished just that. After shedding a few tears and letting a few laughs out, I left wanting someone just like Logan to come and find me.

5 out of 5 stars

by Brooke Courtney