Mini Review
Despite Safe Haven looking like it would be a big bowl of cheese, my friends and I decided to see it as we're huge fans of another Nicholas Sparks adaptation, The Notebook. This film however, is quite different to that, as it is from other Nicholas Sparks adaptations I have seen such as Dear John and A Walk To Remember, although they do seem to all follow similar themes of love and loss.
In this particular adaptation we follow Katie (Julianne Hough), as she runs away to the small beach town of Southport (no, not the miserable one in the UK!). What or who she is running from is not known. Once settled in Southport with a job, a home and a friendly neighbor Jo (Cobie Smulders), Katie starts to feel more secure. Little does she know that a police officer from her old home town of Boston, is looking for her in connection to a murder there. Meanwhile Katie starts to get close to Alex (Josh Duhamel) and his two children, not realising that every day the cop searching for her is getting dangerously closer to her current location. And if he finds her, everything she's worked so hard to leave behind will not only re-surface, but it could destroy everything she's worked so hard to build.
I was pleasantly surprised by Safe Haven. After enjoying The Notebook I was keen to see Dear John, but was then massively disappointed by it. It was so much cheesier than The Notebook and featured some pretty bad performances by Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried. I was so put off that I didn't bother to see the next Nicholas Sparks adaptation, The Lucky One. But something about the trailer for Safe Haven made me think that it was going to be different from those movies, and I'm glad I gave it a chance. The choice of going with relative unknown Julianne Hough as the lead actress also gave the film more of an edge, as because she wasn't a star I never felt like I could completely trust her character or that she would be safe from getting killed off.
My only gripe with the film, although sadly it is a pretty major gripe, is that the ending is so ridiculous it completely belittles the rest of the film. If the ending had been different, or even if the closing minutes simply didn't happen, I would have really liked Safe Haven. As it stands, it has to have the worst ending of the year so far. I won't spoil it for you if you plan to see the film but I challenge anybody to watch this and not roll your eyes as the credits roll. 5 out of 10.
Viewing Date - 14th March 2013
UK Release Date - 1st March 2013
Cast Overview:
Julianne Hough ~ Katie
Josh Duhamel ~ Alex
Cobie Smulders ~ Jo
David Lyons ~ Kevin
Mimi Kirkland ~ Lexie
Noah Lomax ~ Josh
Director ~ Lasse Hallström
Writer(s) ~ Leslie Bohem (Screenplay), Dana Stevens (Screenplay) and Nicholas Sparks (Novel)
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