The Choice feels like Mad Libs with some of Sparks' laziest cliches - a romantic rowboat, a colorful small-town carnival, a jealous upper-class boyfriend - and the result is a predictable, recycled mess.
– Devan Coggan,
Entertainment Weekly,
5 Feb 2016
rotten:
Even when things take a turn, the movie doesn't become more complicated or interesting; we simply start down an equally predictable new track.
– Kyle Smith,
New York Post,
5 Feb 2016
rotten:
The latest Nicholas Sparks adaptation may turn off even his most ardent fans.
– Rafer Guzman,
Newsday,
5 Feb 2016
rotten:
You feel manipulated, but not in the I-can't-help-but-be-moved way that these films usually work. By the time its finale rolls around, The Choice has completely undone its own spell.
– Bilge Ebiri,
New York Magazine/Vulture,
6 Feb 2016
rotten:
We the people deserve every nutty coincidence, beautiful disaster, luxurious grief montage, and supernatural final-act reveal. Garbage-entertainment is still entertainment. Why, then, does The Choice almost entirely opt out of its own game?