I spent $10 to get one of the only two tickets left to "The Vow" on Saturday evening. The other one went to my good friend who decided to tag along.
As we walked into the theater and found the only remaining pair of seats, we felt lucky to even get tickets at all. Presumedly, most of the audience consisted of 20-something women. There were maybe 10 men in the theater, all of whom didn't seem as desperate to be there as their dates.
"This is such a romantic story!" one woman gushed.
"I wonder what time ‘Safe House' starts," the man next to her mumbled.
I could feel the excitement radiating from the rest of my row. I was rather excited, too. I had seen previews for weeks and was drawn to the Valentine's Day hype they were creating.
The film, which is based on true events, follows the marriage of record label owner Leo (Channing Tatum) and sculptor Paige (Rachel McAdams), both of whom are blissfully in love until a snow plow rear-ends them, causing Paige to catapult through the windshield and lose the last five years of her memory. When she wakes up, she cannot remember Leo, why she dropped out of law school to pursue art and why she cut ties with her family. The rest of the movie patches up holes in Paige's memory, such as why Leo never met her family, why she left her ex-fiancé Jeremy and why she doesn't like anything she sees in her wardrobe. It also leaves Leo questioning how he's going to get Paige to start all over again.
Although the plot is enticing, the movie lacks a little substance that one of my favorite love stories, "The Notebook," (starring McAdams) has an endless supply of. Ryan Gosling and McAdams' characters move me to tears while Tatum's, at certain points, simply seems like something to drool over while McAdams steals the show. Tatum does an OK job with his shy, wounded character, but doesn't always deliver in key moments. McAdams, however, does a superior job throughout, making her character's constant compassion shine through.
Even though Tatum's acting was distracting at times, I was impressed with the cute, awkward humor both before and after the accident, such as the funny dialogue when Paige discovers Leo in the nude. A fart joke was also included. The humor was on-point and allowed the audience to relax a bit since amnesia is not a light subject.
Another interesting addition to the plot is the fact that Paige never questions why she left her cookie-cutter, suburban life to pursue sculpting. That was my biggest concern throughout the entire thing, and it kept me thinking hours after I went home. Perhaps it would have given too much away, but who knows.
Tying it all together is some generally good cinematography. I'm not one for seeing a car accident in slow-motion, especially when it comes to seemingly perfect movie stars like McAdams flying through a windshield, but it gets the point across.
Overall, this was a solid effort by Director Michael Sucsy. However, I'm in no hurry to watch it again. With my $5 soda in hand, I left the theater with too many unanswered questions, which started to overshadow the scenes I actually enjoyed. One of those questions, how am I going to get my $10 refunded?
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