The Vow

Movie, 2012, PG-13

Premise - When a married couple are involved in a horrendous car accident, the wife, Paige, wakes up and cannot remember her life with her husband, Leo. As her memory fails to return over the coming weeks and months, Leo must try to get his own wife to fall in love with him again.


Review - I cannot articulate the anticipation I had for this film when it first came out. Channing Tatum was my favorite male romantic lead, and Rachel McAdams my favorite female romantic lead, and they were coming together as lovers in a dramatic romance film. My heart exploded.

Watching this now as an adult, I still find the character performances incredibly enjoyable. I don't think anyone can deny the charm these two actors have. However, it's now clearer to me how overtly dramatic some of the story is, particularly immediately after the accident. When she first awakes from a coma and a traumatic brain injury, I feel like doctors would expect her to be a little clouded and confused. If I had a loved one who didn't recognize me immediately after waking up I would probably find it kind of funny. The only abnormal part is when she persistently does not remember him, throughout the rest of the day, and for infinite days to come. In the film, however, the moment Paige wakes up and doesn't recognize Leo is over-dramatized. He immediately starts crying and expecting the worst. It just felt unnatural that the realization of their predicament didn't unfold more slowly.

Nevertheless, it would take a lot for me to not enjoy this film. It follows the formula of hot actor + hot actor + love story = me satisfied, quality aside. So yes, I will watch this film over and over! That said, I find a difficult time holding this as one of my favorites. I'm just too attached to memories being who we are. I applaud the characters' ability to see falling in love all over again as a silver lining, but I still view it as a tragedy. Leo gives a speech about how incredible it would be to re-read your favorite book over again for the first time, and for me, that would be horrific - to lose all of the years and years of dedication and thorough exploration of a novel. Because we're not just talking about a simple, surface-level read (i.e., the "falling in love"), but the persistent dedication (i.e. the "love") that also gets lost. Such a tragedy.

Then again, this is based on a true story, so it would be even more tragic to erase these people's stories with a magical "and then they kissed and she got her memory back!"  (83/100)

Quote - "I vow to help you love life, to always hold you with tenderness, to have the patience that love demands, to speak when words are needed, and to share the silence when they are not, to agree to disagree about red velvet cake, to live within the warmth of your heart, and always call it home."

What to watch for - I stand by the fact that Channing Tatum is the sexiest and most charming actor alive today. Just drives me wild.

If you liked this movie, I'd recommend Dear John!

Inspired by the true story of Kim and Krickett Carpenter
Directed by Michael Sucsy
Distributed by Screen Gems