Julianne Hough is being hunted down for murder, and so to escape, she catches a bus ride down to Southport, North Carolina, where she quickly makes friends with Josh Duhamel and his two kids. Of course the two fall instantly in love and neither really seems to question why just about everyone they interact with in this town is so god damn good looking. In any case, Hough tries to make a new life. She gets a job at the local restaurant, and buys a shack in the woods to live in, which seems kind of odd considering she's frightened almost every night that there's someone outside trying to break in. Isn't there another house in the actual city of Southport? Also, the town doesn't seem to worry about trivial matters such as credit history or bank accounts when it comes to purchasing a home, even if it is a cabin in the woods. Anyway, while Hough is playing house in North Carolina, a detective is looking for her back in her hometown, who, despite his good looks (seriously! Is there not one ugly person in Nicholas Sparks' world??), has some hidden demons that may compromise his ability to find her. Or something like that.
They're trying desperately to make a movie star out of Julianne Hough, who starred in last year's Rock of Ages, but she just doesn't quite deliver a memorable performance here. It's just pretty meh. I get the feeling she'll get a few more starring roles in movies like this, but I don't see her becoming another Rachel McAdams or someone to that effect who's a bankable romance star. She does, however, have a starring role in Diablo Cody's directorial debut, Paradise, which is set for a release later this year. Cody wrote the screenplays for great movies focusing on female leads like Juno and Young Adult, so that is maybe Hough's best chance at showing that she has what it takes to be a star in Hollywood.
It irks me that in all of these kinds of movies lately the female star is a tall, borderline unhealthily-thin blonde, and the male lead is a rugged-looking outcast. It's what I call The Notebook effect. There really isn't two more prototypical stereotypes in romance movies, and I wish that more of these movies would step out of that element into something different. Would it make the movie significantly better? Probably not, but it'd be nice to see a variety in the stars of these movies. After awhile, it becomes impossible to separate the Julianne Hough's from the Taylor Schilling's of movie world.
I felt like the whole plotline of the detective searching for Hough really made the movie drag in the middle. Again, this is the kind of movie that could have been cut by 20 minutes and not really lost much in terms of its overall story. The scenes with the detective really took me out of the romance between Duhamel and Hough's characters, which is kind of the point of the movie in the first place. I guess I can see why that storyline is there (it builds for the inevitable climatic ending), but it just weighed the movie down. There's a twist towards the end of the movie that isn't really all that shocking to begin with (careful watchers will be able to pick up the clues as the movie goes along), which gives the ending that little extra Nicholas Sparks sappy ending we've seen before.
 |
| Even the kids are adorable! |
Probably the best thing about Safe Haven is the scenery. It's set in a coastal North Carolina town, and it makes for some really nice looking shots, particularly towards the end of the movie, set on July 4th evening. Duhamel has some really great moments with the two kids in the movie, and he gives a really convincing performance as a father to them. It's not anything forced or that seems fake. There are a few storylines with the kids that I kind of wish the movie would have focused on more, but then again the movie isn't really about them.
People have said that the twist is ludicrous and insulting, but I disagree. It wasn't something that came as a shock, and, while I don't really think the movie benefited enough from the twist in order to warrant it being in there, it kind of makes sense in the context of the movie. I didn't find it all that shocking; I had it mostly figured out about thirty minutes in, but the movie could have done more with it. I think it would have been interesting to learn the twist earlier in the movie. While it probably makes early scenes more intriguing on a second viewing, I feel a movie should base itself around the idea that people are only going to see it once. Safe Haven isn't the kind of movie that needs to end with a surprising twist.
I've never read a Nicholas Sparks book. I probably will at some point just to get an idea of his writing style, but I can't imagine all his books being as cookie cutter as the adaptions that have come from them. Even though I highlighted a few things I liked in Safe Haven, there's far too much here that we've seen before in other romantic dramas recently. There are scenes in Safe Haven taken almost directly from other movies based off his books like The Lucky One and The Notebook. I think that is the main problem critics tend to have with these movies. Although they're different on some levels, most of the plot is the same as the last movie. The Lucky One and Safe Haven are in many ways the same movie, with just a reversal of gender for the main characters. Also, can I just ask, why is there so much rain in all his movies? And why is it always during a big dramatic scene? There are other forms of weather, people!
Safe Haven pretty much boils down to being just a more well-funded Lifetime movie. I don't necessarily mean that as an insult, but that's basically what we're dealing with here. There's nothing new that stands out or makes it memorable from the countless other romantic dramas we've seen since The Notebook started this Nicholas Sparks type of romance drama back in 2004. That being said, it's not a terrible movie, it's just kind of there. It's merely a means to get couples into the seats for a date night on a weekend.
Has its Moments
No comments:
Post a Comment