For the first time in so many long years, in this day and age, the art of written love letters from a man whose sensibilities women these days are looking for comes to the fore in the romantic endearing movie “The Longest Ride” based on Nicholas Sparks’ bestselling book of the same title. Jack Huston stars with Oona Chaplin, Britt Robertson, Scott Eastwood and Alan Alda in “The Longest Ride,” which follows two intertwining love stories and the courage it takes to make marriages work in the long term.
In 1940, we meet Ira (Huston), who works in his family’s store and is entranced by Ruth (Chaplin), an artistic Austrian immigrant. They embark on a relationship that survives in the face of many obstacles. In the present day, Sophia (Robertson), an art history student meets Luke (Eastwood), a bull rider. Like Ruth and Ira, they come from different worlds but fall in love. Their lives intersect when Luke and Sophia rescue Ira, now an elderly widow (played by Alan Alda) who has been seriously injured after his car crashed. In the wrecked car Sophia discovered a box containing a precious stash of letters, written by Ira to his beloved wife Ruth over the course of many years. Sophia returns the box to Ira and reads the letters aloud to him. They develop a friendship as Ira reflects back on his fascinating life.
