← Back to Directory
The Best of Me
Movie

The Best of Me

2014 • Unknown

Woke Score
1.4
out of 10

Plot

A pair of former high school sweethearts reunite after many years when they return to visit their small hometown.

Overall Series Review

The movie follows former high school sweethearts, Dawson and Amanda, who are reunited decades later following the death of a mutual mentor. Dawson is a blue-collar oil rig worker from an infamously abusive, low-class family, while Amanda is an unhappy, upper-class housewife. The narrative focuses almost exclusively on their enduring, fated heterosexual romance and the dramatic, often tragic, circumstances that separated them and keep them apart in the present. The central conflict is intensely personal and familial, revolving around class differences, abusive family ties, and the pull of first love versus current marital obligation. The film contains no notable political, racial, or gender-identity messaging; it is a straightforward melodrama centered on traditional romantic tropes and concepts of destiny.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics1/10

The narrative's central conflict is based on class and reputation, pitting the white, working-class ‘outlaw’ Cole family against the white, affluent Collier family. Character merit is the sole driver of the story, as Dawson is a good man overcoming a terrible family reputation, and Amanda is judged on her choice between her unhappy marriage and her true love. Race, intersectionality, and forced diversity are completely absent.

Oikophobia2/10

The film takes place entirely within a small Louisiana hometown setting that is presented with both romantic, idyllic qualities (beautiful scenery, a cherished old cottage) and harsh realities (the Cole family’s abuse and criminality). The core Western institutions of family and small-town life are the subject of the drama but are not condemned as fundamentally corrupt; instead, the plot focuses on individual virtue and dysfunction within those settings. The small town itself serves as a repository of fate and enduring love.

Feminism3/10

The score is slightly elevated because the female lead, Amanda, is profoundly dissatisfied in her role as a married mother and seeks fulfillment by reigniting a past romance, which implicitly devalues her current nuclear family structure and marriage. Her husband is portrayed as a toxic 'twerp' and an alcoholic workaholic, making the male figure who represents the modern family structure incompetent. Dawson, the former sweetheart, represents a physically capable and emotionally sensitive masculine ideal, which is complementary but his love story ultimately threatens the existing family unit.

LGBTQ+1/10

The movie is a completely conventional, heterosexual romantic drama. Alternative sexualities and gender ideology are entirely outside the scope of the narrative. The story's entire premise is the decades-long love between a man and a woman, and the nuclear family unit is the context for the conflict, not the target of deconstruction.

Anti-Theism1/10

The film avoids traditional religious belief, with characters often referencing 'fate,' 'destiny,' and the 'universe' as the guiding forces in their lives rather than any objective moral law or God. This results in a secular-fatalistic worldview. However, it does not display overt hostility toward religion, nor are Christian characters portrayed as bigots or villains; the topic is simply sidestepped in favor of a spiritual vacuum centered on romantic fate.