The Vow

Starring: Channing Tatum, Rachel McAdams, Sam Neill, Jessica Lange, Jessica McNamee, Scott Speedman
Directed by: Michael Sucsy
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Drama, Romance
2012

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: After a car accident, Paige (Rachel McAdams) loses all memory of her huband Leo (Channing Tatum) and their life together. Leo embarks on a desperate attempt to win back the woman he loves.

Review:

Tim: I admit I didn't have the highest hopes for The Vow. It just seemed like a cheesy, redundant romantic drama. There was nothing in the trailer that made me think this could be anything out of the ordinary. Unfortunately, the early prediction came true. This is a completely forgettable, lackluster film. It is slightly less than average in just about every way.

Let's start with the cast. I simply don't get the appeal of Channing Tatum. I think he's a mediocre actor at best. I wasn't overly excited about seeing him here. Now, I will say that my opinion of Tatum isn't an automatic prejudice that ruins a movie for me. I enjoyed Dear John and I appreciated his work there. Here, he's just bland throughout the entire film. I never really cared about his character because it looked like he was acting throughout the entire film. His performance never spoke to me, and he never gave me an avenue into his character. His performance was poor.

I was surprised that I didn't like Rachel McAdams very much, either. It feels like her career, which started off red hot, has really cooled in recent years. She hasn't done anything to impress in quite a while. It felt like she was completely out of rhythm throughout this whole film. Perhaps it was the absolute lack of chemistry with Tatum. Perhaps she could never get over the fart scene (seriously, that was gross and uncalled for). Some of it is certainly a script issue (she loses her memory and turns into an unlikable jerk) but McAdams deserves some of the blame here as well.

This film simply didn't work for me. I never felt any emotional attachment to the characters or their plight. It was predictable enough that there's never really any suspense in how the movie will end. There wasn't anything particularly funny or endearing about the entire movie. It just plodded along, throwing out the occasional cliche (why are women always artists in romantic movies?) and generally meandering along, never rising to any level of real excitement.

The Vow is another throwaway romance that gives the genre a bad name. Sure, it twists things up a bit with the whole memory loss thing, but that isn't enough to redeem a lackluster movie. I definitely blame the inexperienced director, Michael Sucsy for some of the film's failure. There is enough material here that a competent director could have pierced together a fairly moving story. As is, though, this film never gives us even a glimmer of why we should care or invest ourselves in it. That, to me, is a failure.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 5.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: 50 First Dates, The Notebook, Dear John