"Nights in Rodanthe" **1/2 (out of four): Director George C. Wolfe's overly-crafted adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel is a bit much. But the two leads are so charismatic that they manage to sell the material far more than it deserves.

Everything about "Nights in Rodanthe" - director George C. Wolfe 's overly-crafted adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel - is a bit too much. The setting - a precious B&B in the titular North Carolina coastal town - is too perfect: the isolated strip of ocean, the straight-out-of-Cottage Life décor, even the surf laps a bit too closely to the perfectly weathered wooden staircase. The script, by Ann Peacock and John Romano, ticks all the checkboxes for a romantic drama (divorces, estranged children, redemption), and the leads (Diane Lane and Richard Gere), as was proven in Adrian Lyne's 2002 barnstormer "Unfaithful", have chemistry to spare. Even the director overdoes it here (did we really need the swooping aerial shot of the Inn?). But the real believability-strainer comes from the setup, which is so contrived that it makes your average rom-com "meet-cute" seem plausible.

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