Originally published February 9, 2012 at 11:53 AM | Page modified February 10, 2012 at 8:53 PM
Movie review
'The Vow': sweet, earnest but half-baked
"The Vow," playing at several Seattle theaters, is a gooey, half-baked love story directed by Michael Sucsy and starring Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum, says Seattle Times movie critic Moira Mcdonald.
Seattle Times movie critic
Courtesy of Kerry Hayes SMPSP/MCT
"The Vow," starring Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams as a married couple, is based on a true story of the wife's memory loss after an accident.
'The Vow,' with Rachel McAdams, Channing Tatum, Jessica Lange, Sam Neill, Scott Speedman. Directed by Michael Sucsy, from a screenplay by Abby Kohn, Marc Silverstein and Jason Katims. 104 minutes. Rated PG-13 for an accident scene, sexual content, partial nudity and some language. Several theaters.
Before the opening credits finish rolling in the romantic drama "The Vow," we know this film's about tragedy, recovery and love. An adorable young married couple, Paige (Rachel McAdams) and Leo (Channing Tatum), leave a movie on a snowy Chicago night, laughing and cuddly. In their car, they pause at a stop sign to make out and a truck plows into them, sending Paige through the windshield. Days later, she wakes up in a hospital and looks at Leo blankly, not having the faintest idea who he might be.
Directed by Michael Sucsy, "The Vow" is based on a true story of a couple who fell in love a second time after an accident erased the young wife's memories of her husband. It's a touching story, and makes for a sweet, earnest movie that's pleasantly uncomplicated; you know that somehow, these two likable kids will find their way back together again. You root for McAdams and Tatum because they show some genuine chemistry together; you sense that these two are better with each other than apart.
The screenplay, though, pulls things into gooey Nicholas Sparks territory (familiar turf for McAdams, who starred in the film of Sparks' novel, "The Notebook"): Leo is a saintly fellow with infinite patience and little personality; Paige is a lovely but childlike woman without complication, other than that imposed on her by the head injury — supposedly she's an artist, but only because the script says so. They're not so much people as pretty pictures, with some less pretty ones around them: Jessica Lange and Sam Neill play Paige's upper-class parents, who weren't happy with their daughter's choices and see a chance to make things right. Eager to put an end to what they see as her bohemian lifestyle, they scoop their daughter up and convince her to highlight her hair, wear alligator polos and ditch the husband; it's the movie's strangely misguided attempt at creating conflict.
All of these people seem like lazy sketches rather than developed characters; it's tempting to wonder how moving "The Vow" might have been if they'd been allowed to breathe and live.
Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com
