The Lucky One(2012)

Plot Summary

• Is there really such a thing as destiny? Is Fate shadowing our movements, stacking the deck, or are all our momentsordinary and extraordinaryrandom?A Marine (Zac Efron) has seemingly defied the odds during three tours of duty in Iraq. The story opens in Iraq, where U.S. Marine Sergeant Logan Thibault is on his third tour of duty. Almost immediately, he is thrust into a firefight that changes his life forever.Central to the story is Logan's connection to what he comes to perceive as his own good luck charm - a photograph of a stranger he finds in the middle of the war zone.Returning to the States, Logan is unable to fit back in with his own family. Will Fetters says many of his friends who served echo that sentiment. "The disconnect these veterans feel when they come home is so immense. It takes a while to get back into the rhythm of life. Their once usual surroundings feel alien. Nothing will ever be the same."Logan is also unable to shake his curiosity about the woman in the photo (Taylor Schilling), who inadvertently saved his life. Deciding he must try to locate her, he scours the internet to identify the lighthouse in the background, and finds the match. Soon he embarks on a trek from Colorado to Louisiana, with his dog Zeus at his side.However, when Beth meets Logan, there's immediate distrust. Beth lives at her family home, where she runs a dog kennel and training business with her grandmother, Ellie (Blythe Danner). Ellie, who, upon observing Logan's command over Zeus, hires him to help at the kennel, despite Beth's objections. Hicks comments that Ellie might also have ulterior motives.Another person who welcomes Logan's arrival is Beth's seven-year-old son, Ben (Riley Thomas Stewart). Logan becomes fast friends with Ben, who delights in beating him in chess and showing off his magic tricks. Logan also not only accepts but encourages Ben's playing of the violin, something his own father dismisses.Ben's father, and Beth's ex-husband, is the town's Deputy Sheriff, Keith Clayton (Jay R. Ferguson), who uses their son Ben as a pawn to intimidate and control Beth. It only gets worse when he jealously starts to view Logan as an interloper in his family.

Storyline

• Logan is a marine serving in Iraq. While there, he finds a photo of a girl with "keep safe" written on the back. He is admiring it when his unit is attacked. He survives and credits the photo for saving him. He tries to find the owner but can't, assuming he was killed. When he goes back to the States, he finds it difficult to adjust and is still haunted by what happened. Analyzing the photo, he finds in the background a landmark that tells him she is in Louisiana. He then goes there and finds her. He learns her name is Beth. He tries to tell her what happened but can't get the words out. She assumes he's there to apply for the job they advertised looking for someone to help at her family's business, a dog kennel. He says yes but at first she gets an uneasy feeling from him but her grandmother decides to give him a chance. It isn't long that he makes a connection with her son. He then discovers that it was her brother who had the picture only he doesn't remember him. He sees that her brother's death has a profound effect on her. Eventually they get close which makes her grandmother happy but not her ex who is a deputy sheriff who's always threatening to take their son away from her. — rcs0411@yahoo.com In Iraq, marine Sergeant Logan finds the photo of a young woman with the message "Keep Safe X" on the back in the debris of a construction and he keeps it in his pocket. His action saves his life from a mortar fire and he believes that the girl is his guardian angel that protects him. When he returns to Colorado, he has difficulties to adjust to civilian life with his sister's family and he decides to seek out the woman. Logan researches the landscape and finds that the place is Hamden, in Louisiana, and he walks with his dog Zeus to Hamden. He discovers that the woman is Beth Green, who is the owner of Green Kennels with her grandmother Ellie. When Logan meets Beth, he is unable to tell the reason why he had traveled to Hamden, she assumes that he wants the job that she had advertised, and Ellie gives the job to Logan. Soon Logan befriends Beth's son Ben and becomes close to the family. But her former husband, Sheriff Keith Clayton does not want to make Logan's life easy. — Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil US Marine Logan Thibault is on his third tour of duty in Iraq. The morning after a deadly battle, he spots among some rubble a photograph of a young Caucasian woman, with only the words "Keep Safe X" scrawled on the back. In retrieving the photo, he misses being killed by a bomb that hit where he was just sitting. Carrying the photo looking for its owner, he, unable to find that person, encounters one near miss after another, leading to his surviving comrades and himself believing the photograph and by association the woman his guardian angel. Back in the States, he, suffering from PTSD exacerbated by guilt over surviving when many of his colleagues died in battle, goes searching for the woman, who he believes may bring some semblance of meaning back into his life. With only a partial landmark in the photo background, he is able to trace her to the small hamlet of Hamden, Louisiana. She is Beth Green, and the photo belonged to her brother, Logan's fellow Marine Drake Green, whose death in Iraq is still under investigation but which the military believes may have been by friendly fire. In her grief, Beth, a single mom to eight year old Ben, has temporarily left her teaching job while she and Ben live with her "Nana" and helps at the family's kennel business. Logan is unable to tell Beth the reason for his visit as Nana hires him to work at the kennel. Able to get over her initial mistrust of Logan, Beth eventually falls for him, who becomes an integral part not only of the business but in the Green's family life, especially as a male role model for Ben. Logan and Beth having a happily ever after is threatened by the truth of why Logan came to Hamden, and by Beth's ex-husband, Deputy Sheriff Keith Clayton, who still treats Beth like his possession, and who uses his position as law enforcement and the family name - his father being a judge who is running for Hamden mayor - to get what he wants, which includes threats of suing for full custody of Ben. — Huggo Marine Logan survived three war tours in Iraq and believes owing his survival to a luck charm belonging to a mate killed in action, so once repatriated he walks no foot from Colorado to the family Louisiana home with his German shepherd. Inquiring, he's mistaken by the KIA's sister Beth for the only applicant for the barely paid position of factotum at her animal sanctuary. He takes it, does a great job in every respect, and in Beth's granny Ellie's eyes would make a perfect match. Her smart kid son Ben soon adopts Logan as ideal father substitute, but his divorced father, sheriff Keith Clayton, son of the town's almighty judge, makes a formidable rival. Yet a storm and Ben's musical gift without confidence go a long way, even if Beth finds out the wrong way. — KGF Vissers 1 more All