Safe Haven (**½)
Directed
by: Lasse Halstrom
Starring:
Julianne Hough, Josh Duhamel, Cobie Smulders, David Lyons
Seen:
May 17th 2013
**½
Out of ****
Safe
Haven is the 8th of Nicholas Sparks’ novels to be filmed, and like
the earlier seven (Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, The Notebook, Nights
in Rodanthe, Dear John, The Last Song, and The Lucky One), Safe Haven is shamelessly
romantic. Curiously, 5 of these movies’ posters feature a couple about to kiss,
while the other three feature a couple holding each other – this might be the female
equivalent to the Marvel movies! Safe Haven features all the regular staples of
romantic dramas: a meet cute, some flirting, the start of something, the dark something
returning, the resolution, and the happily ever after.
Safe
Haven does have some welcome variations to the usual themes, with the dark
something returning here not being a screw-up by the male character that makes
her doubt him before deciding for him; or another man nearly winning her heart but
who is then suddenly revealed to be a minotaur (or some such thing, both pet peeves
of mine in romance movies). There is also a sensitive side to this movie in
that the male character is dealing with the loss of his wife – and it was handled
with care in this story.
A
young woman (Hough), fleeing for her life (it seems), is shown dropping a
bloody knife and later boards a bus to nowhere, her hair now cut and coloured.
Nowhere here is Southport, where she assumes the name Katie. She gets a job as
a waitress, buys a small cabin on the outskirts of town (well-paying
waitressing job?), and starts to slowly settle down with her newfound friend Jo
(Smulders). She meets Alex (Duhamel), a single father with two kids, Josh and
Lexie, and the two get along really well really soon. Alex’s kids don’t even
take too long to accept Katie as the new woman in their dad’s life, and
everything is just peachy. For a while, that is. Katie’s past comes back to
bite her in the back, and the fallout threatens to destroy something beautiful.
This being a romantic movie, and a Nicholas Sparks one at that, we all know how
things will end up, so it’s about the journey, not the destination.
Safe
Haven is well produced, with scenes not featuring the darkness in the story almost
making the viewer feel as if on holiday with the characters. The darker scenes
feel somewhat generic, but they aren’t really what the movie is about. The two
leads are very likeable; Josh Duhamel is almost Tad Hamilton again, while
relative movie-newcomer Julianne Hough (two-time Dancing with the Stars
champion) is really sweet and never boring. The chemistry between them simply works.
The rest of the cast takes a back seat though, and they are barely memorable.
If
you really have to see a romantic drama, you can try it and it won’t destroy
your evening. Safe Haven is a safe date movie, but it is really not much more, it
will be nothing more than a fleeting memory by the time you get home.
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