You've never known love until you've kissed in the pouring rain. I've come to believe this is a fact of life after watching one too many movies written by Nicholas Sparks (e.g., "The Notebook" and "Nights in Rodanthe"). Other facts include: You should never ever stop dieting, even after you hit 35, in case you run into old boyfriends, which is bound to happen; and old boyfriends remain handsome forever — they never grow old or put on weight.

All these things occur with a vengeance in "The Best of Me," the latest heart-rending date movie based on a novel written by Sparks, which pairs Michelle Monaghan and James Marsden as high school lovers who reunite after ... what has it been, 20 years?

"Twenty one, but who's counting?" Dawson (Marsden) replies, with a shy, lopsided smile that would look great on a cigarette ad if smoking was still allowed in the Western world.