Friday’s movie openings: Characters looking for love

Above : Pierce Brosnan and Kaya Scodelario star in “The King’s Daughter,” which opens Friday. (Photo/Gravitas Ventures)

Love, as the novelist Han Suyin wrote , is a many-splendored thing. It’s also been the subject of many a movie, not the least of which was the 1955 adaptation of Suyin’s novel that starred William Holden and Jennifer Jones.

Love, in one form or another, will also be the basis of the movies – at least two of which also were adapted from novels – that will open in mainstream moviehouses on Friday. An early list of them includes:

“Redeeming Love” : D.J. Caruso adapted Francine Rovers ’ best-selling historical romance about a woman, sold as a child into prostitution, who is offered the chance at a new life with a loving man. The question is, will she – or even can she – take it? To quote Brian Wilson, God only knows.

AV Film Club critic A.A. Dowd wrote, “(T)he film applies the magic-hour glow of a Nicholas Sparks adaptation – complete with majestic sunsets, cute canine companions, and at least one terminal illness – to the unbalanced love story between a long-suffering sex worker and the pious farmer who thinks he’s ordained to make her his wife.”

“The King’s Daughter” : Based on another novel, this one Vonda N. McIntyre ’s “The Moon and the Sun,” Sean McNamara’s film tells the fictionalized story of French King Louis XIV (Pierce Brosnan) capturing a mermaid and his daughter (Kaya Scodelario) who discovers the creature.

Movie Nation’s Roger Moore wrote, “Worth the price of admission just to see the ex-James Bond Brosnan swanning around the Hall of Mirrors in glorious wig and the stylish raiment of Louis XIV and his trend-setting court.”

“ The Souvenir: Part II ”: Writer-director Joanna Hogg continues the story of Julie (Honor Brighton Burne) that she started in “The Souvenir,” this time exploring Julie’s life following her doomed relationship.

Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times wrote, “The best kind of sequel, not merely enhancing or deepening its predecessor but also recasting it in a revelatory new light.”

That’s it for the moment. I’ll update as the week progresses. Until then, to quote country singer Johnny Lee , stop looking for love in all the wrong places.