Based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks, the guy who gave us A Night to Remember and The Notebook, you pretty much know going in that this is going to end in tears. And if one judges a tear-jerker by how many sniffles you hear as the credits roll then Nights in Rodanthe is a winner.

Adrienne Willis (Diane Lane) is a woman in transition. Her husband (Christopher Meloni) left, after having an affair with a good friend of hers and she's left with her children, a young son and a teenage daughter (Charlie Tahan and Mae Whitman) who blame her for their father's departure. Things get even more complicated when he announces he wants to come back home. Needing time to think, she goes to her best friend's (Viola Davis) bed and breakfast to run the place for her while she goes on vacation. Only one guest is scheduled to be there during the slow off-season weekend, Dr. Paul Flanner. He's come to Rodanthe to confront an issue of his own. The pair meets and over the course of 4 nights, fall in love - deep soul-stirring, once-in-a-lifetime love.

Yes, the plot is contrived. Yes, the dialogue is clichéd. But damn if I wasn't shedding a few tears at the end.

Richard Gere and Diane Lane have the kind of chemistry that can make or break a movie like this. They seem like a plausible couple. Likewise, Lane and Mae Whitman, who played her daughter, also had some real credibility in their relationship. Actor Scott Glenn has a small but powerful performance as the widowed husband of a patient that died on Flanner's operating table. His tale of love lived and love lost is another source of tears.

This is one of those movies that you watch on Lifetime while rolled up in a blanket while sitting on the sofa with a cup of tea or some ice cream.