Oh, Nicholas Sparks — the rain, the canoe and the big kiss.
Valentine’s Day marked the beginning of the season of sappy chick flicks.
“Safe Haven” is a romance directed by Lasse Hallström. The movie stars Julianne Hough as Katie, a woman who has run away from her past life and is looking to make a fresh start — with a new alias — in the town of Southport, N.C.
Josh Duhamel plays Alex, a widowed father of two and Katie’s love interest. The third leading cast member, Jo (Cobie Smulders), plays Katie’s neighbor. Jo repeatedly expresses her desire to see the world, yet she appears stuck in Southport. A bigger story grows around her character.
Despite the overall repetitive themes the movie is based on — boy meets girl, overwhelming romantics, dramatic fights and makeups — “Safe Haven” actually proved to be a well-thought-out movie.
In the recent past, Sparks’ films have fallen short (“Dear John”), but this film had many ah-ha moments.
Throughout the movie, the shot switches between the whirlwind romance of Katie and Alex and an intense police search led by Tierney (David Lyons).
Duhamel and Hough are lucky they have their looks, because their acting is subpar.
The best performance in the whole movie is by Mimi Kirkland, who plays Lexie, Alex’s young daughter. Her spry spirit is captivating from the first scene. She is working behind the counter of her father’s (Duhamel) convenience store and offers Katie advice about painting her floor. Whether she is building sand castles on the beach or has tears running down her face, Kirkland, at only 8 years old, delivers the most believable performance of the entire cast.
Jo (Smulders) is thoroughly underwritten. She has cheesy lines and her sudden friendship with Katie is underdeveloped. The twist ending, which is centered around Jo, has little-to-no foreshadowing. Viewer reactions in the theater ranged from tears to outright chuckles.
The relationship between Katie and Alex is also underdeveloped. They go from a public blowout to a romantic family beach trip, all in a two-day span. Alex’s children, Lexie and Josh (Noah Lomax), are really what brought the lovers together, but the relationship between Katie and Lexie is more substantive than the one she has with Alex.
The first half of the movie does a good job with building up romance while continually reminding us of the police hunt and Katie’s past. It’s not until the second half that the action really picks up when Katie is forced to reveal her past to Alex or risk losing him.
We also become acutely aware of Tierney’s insane tendencies and his stalker-like agenda. Without Lyons’ performance, the final scenes of the film may have fallen short.
Even though the movie deals with heavy topics, somehow it all comes together in a warmhearted denouement.
True to form, Sparks created a love story that will give hopeless romantics something to dream about.