The film stars James Marsden and Michelle Monaghan with Luke Bracey and Liana Liberato.

The film -- the story of Dawson and Amanda -- moves between alternate scenes of the couple's relationship in 1992, and their current separate lives.

After his recovery months later, Dawson learns that his close friend and surrogate father—Tuck—has died, so he returns home for the first time in almost twenty years to carry out Tuck's final wishes, with the deceased's appointed lawyer.

In flashbacks, it is revealed that as a teenager, he once left his father's home and stayed overnight in the garage of Tuck Hostetler, a local mechanic who had recently lost his wife, allowed Dawson to live with him and eventually considered him as his own son.

Since Dawson would not be paroled for at least four years, he cut ties with Amanda, forcing her to prefer college over waiting his release.

[12] On July 25, 2013, Relativity Media acquired the distribution rights from Warner Bros., marking the studio's third film adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel.

[13] On October 22, Michelle Monaghan was cast to play the female lead Amanda Collier, and Ryan Kavanaugh was to co-produce the film.

[14] On January 9, 2014, the studio offered James Marsden, who co-starred in the 2004 adaptation of Sparks' 1996 novel The Notebook to play the male lead Dawson Cole, replacing Paul Walker after his death.

[4] On January 28, Liana Liberato joined the film's cast as the younger version of Monaghan's character, Amanda Collier.

[7] On February 12, Luke Bracey was added to the cast to play the younger version of Marsden's character, Dawson Cole.

[18] The soundtrack album for the film, released on October 7, 2014,[22] features original music primarily from the genre of country music, recorded by artists such as Lady Antebellum, Hunter Hayes, David Nail, Colbie Caillat, Kip Moore, Eli Young Band, Eric Paslay, Thompson Square, and Thomas Rhett.

[2] In its opening weekend, the film grossed $10 million finishing fifth at the box office behind Fury, Gone Girl, The Book of Life and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, making it the worst opening for a Nicholas Sparks' novel adaptation.

[26] In CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend, cinema audiences gave The Best of Me an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.