Forever My Girl

Forever My Girl is a 2018 American romantic drama film written and directed by Bethany Ashton Wolf based on the novel by Heidi McLaughlin. It follows a country musician (Alex Roe) who sets out to win over the girl he left at the altar eight years before (Jessica Rothe). Abby Ryder Fortson, Travis Tritt, and John Benjamin Hickey also star.

The film was released in the United States on January 19, 2018. It received negative reviews from critics, who denounced the writing and chemistry between the actors, and compared it negatively to Nicholas Sparks films. However, audience reception was more positive, and the film was a modest box office success grossing $16 million on a $3.5 million budget.

Plot
In St. Augustine, Louisiana, Josie is left at the altar by her fiancé Liam to pursue fame and fortune. Eight years later, he is a successful country singer.

The morning after a concert in New Orleans, Liam wakes up to discover the girl he brought home jumping excitedly on and breaking his cell phone. Panicked after realizing, he takes the phone to an electronics store where the manager fixes it for him. Afterwards, he's asked why he still has the damaged phone, and Liam tells him it has a very important message on it.

While watching TV, Liam learns that Mason, his childhood best friend, has been killed in a car accident. He returns to St. Augustine to attend the funeral. Although Liam attempts to be discreet, Josie bumps into him. After the burial, she punches him in the gut.

Liam stays with his father, Pastor Brian, although he's bitter that Liam also cut off contact with him. While reacquainting himself with the town, he encounters Josie at her flower shop. Liam learns that she has a seven-year old daughter, Billy, and that he is the father. Josie confesses that she found out she was pregnant two weeks after he left her at the altar. Although she tried to contact him, Liam never returned her call, so she decided to raise Billy alone.

Liam is surprised to learn that his father also tried to tell him that Josie was pregnant at one of his concerts seven years ago. However, he was too absorbed in his fame and didn’t listen to him. Liam eventually persuades Josie to let him spend time with Billy, albeit on her terms. Billy quickly realizes Liam is her father, much to Josie's surprise, and agrees to get to know each other.

Liam and Billy bond as she displays musical ability. Josie agrees to let her stay the night with him. As Liam tucks her in, Billy asks him why he left her mom. He admits he was young and confused, and regrets it, which both Josie and Brian overhear.

After Billy falls asleep, Josie asks Liam out saying she wants to have a date with "the Liam Page" as she'd never experienced his fame with him. He flies her to New Orleans for their date, and when they are briefly questioned by the press as to who Josie is, he answers "She's the one".

After returning to St. Augustine, Liam and Billy continue to bond. She chokes on her lunch but he doesn't realise, then freezes after having a flashback to his mother’s death. Jake, Josie’s brother, saves Billy. Distraught that he was unaware, Liam gets drunk at a bar. Jake finds him to say Josie and Billy would be better off without him.

While bandaging a wound Liam sustained that evening, Brian reveals that when Liam’s mother died, he was so absorbed in his own grief that he overlooked his son’s, so apologizes to him for it. Brian theorizes that he became famous and cut contact with him as his way of dealing with the grief over his mother’s death, to which Liam agrees.

Liam goes the next morning without saying goodbye to Josie and Billy, leaving a note telling Brian that they are better off without him. Returning to his tour, he performs in London. However, his manager Sam inspires him to return to his family.

At the airport, Liam responds to the message on the answering machine that Josie left for him 8 years earlier, in which she explains her feeling that losing his mother caused him to fear losing her, so he left. He returns to St. Augustine to reconcile with Josie.

Liam and Josie get married, and he plays a song with Billy both at her school talent show and on his tour in Berlin.

Cast

 * Alex Roe as Liam Lincoln Page
 * Jessica Rothe as Josie Mollee Swan
 * Abby Ryder Fortson as Billy Anne Swan
 * Travis Tritt as Walt
 * Peter Cambor as Sam, Liam's manager
 * Gillian Vigman as Doris, a publicist
 * Judith Hoag as Dr. Whitman
 * Tyler Riggs as Jake Swan
 * John Benjamin Hickey as Pastor Brian Page

Development
Author Heidi McLaughlin was inspired to write  Forever My Girl  after seeing a picture of a man on Facebook who looked like he was trying to apologize to a girl. To choose the name of Liam Page it took her a total of 10 or 15 minutes, and that same night she wrote the first 5,000 words. After her book was published, she received an offer from LD Entertainment for a film based on the book. On adapting the book for film, Roe said, "It was difficult to accommodate everything in an hour and a half obviously and there were also other changes that Bethany [Wolf] thought were important."

Casting
McLaughlin said that writing for Liam and Josie was easy because she has friends who are in bands. For the role of Liam, Roe had to learn to sing and play the guitar. Brett Boyett, the film's musical supervisor, helped him practice every day for almost three months. To research his accent Roe watched interviews of country music singers. He was nervous about acting on stage and talked to country group Little Big Town about performing in front of 50,000 people. Roe formed a band in Los Angeles and held several performances for close friends to practice. McLaughlin positively compared Roe to actor Stephen Amell, stating that, "Alex Roe looks like Amell but younger, so for me it's a perfect choice." Rothe said she was attracted to the role of Josie for her strength and female empowerment. McLaughlin originally pictured the Australian supermodel Miranda Kerr for the role, and remarked that Rothe resembled a blonde version of Kerr. Rothe and Roe did not know each other beforehand but had several friends in common, and hung out several times before filming in Atlanta to feel comfortable around each other.

Box office
Forever My Girl opened on January 19, 2018, and grossed $4.7 million from 1,115 theaters in its opening weekend, finishing 10th. It held well in its second weekend, dropping just 12% to $3.7 million. The film went on to make a total of $16.4 million, against a production budget of $3.5 million.

Critical response
on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on  reviews, with an average rating of. The website's critical consensus reads, "Forever My Girl offers a suitably picturesque placeholder for romance fans between Nicholas Sparks films, but other viewers may end up crying for the wrong reasons." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 36 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Home media
The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on April 24, 2018.