MOVIE REVIEWS |
INTERVIEWS |
YOUTUBE |
NEWS
|
EDITORIALS | EVENTS |
AUDIO |
ESSAYS |
ARCHIVES |
CONTACT
|
PHOTOS |
COMING SOON|
EXAMINER.COM FILM ARTICLES
||HOME
Monday, February 11, 2013
MOVIE REVIEW
Safe Haven
Unsafe To Watch, And Damaging To Your Well-Being
Julianne Hough as Katie in Lasse
Hallstrom's romantic drama "Safe Haven". Relativity
Media
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
FOLLOW
Monday,
February 11,
2013
I haven't read the Nicholas Sparks book that Lasse Hallstrom's new film is
adapted from, but "Safe Haven" as a film does more damage to young men and women
-- those teens and 20-somethings who will see "Safe Haven" on Valentine's Day --
than some of the pornography you can find on the Internet. "Safe Haven",
which stars Julianne Hough ("Footloose",
"Rock Of Ages")
as Katie, a battered spouse who escapes her abusive husband in Boston to land in
South Carolina, where she falls in love with Alex (Josh Duhamel), a local
business owner, is one of the most corrosive and troubling films I've seen of
late.
A Boston cop named Tierney (David Lyons) relentlessly pursues Katie, whom we're
told is wanted for murder. At the start we see a frantic, brunette-haired
Katie running for her life, and throughout this disingenuous romantic drama we
glimpse flashbacks of Katie's brutal treatment at the hands of a mostly unseen
perpetrator. (It took me all of five minutes into "Safe Haven" to guess
who the abusive spouse was.)
A Carolina local, Jo (Cobie Smulders), conveniently drops in and out of the
narrative, coming in from nowhere as if an imaginary friend, befriending an
understandably jittering and untrusting Katie, who for some reason decides to
paint her wooden floor -- yellow, no less -- after putting her foot through it.
Everyone in "Safe Haven" seems to trip over, stumble, have trouble opening doors
or fall into water during this very awkward and bizarre film. A Hollywood
romantic drama (or comedy) just isn't one, I suppose, without people tripping
over cockroaches and hero sandwiches. (Or something like that.)
"Safe Haven" has the talents of an adorable Mimi Kirkland as Alex's kid daughter
Lexie but the film, which glories in its sunny, idyllic trappings to the hilt,
is a wolf dressed in sheep's clothing. Katie suffers from PTSD but goes
against her own best laid convictions about leaving South Carolina when several
close calls with police occur. "I love you," Alex declares to Katie.
This alone is enough to keep Katie from heading out of South Carolina
on a ferry to her own safety. If Katie was courageous enough to flee
Boston and an abusive spouse, why does Katie suddenly go against her better
judgment with a man she barely knows?
I know what you're thinking: there would be no movie if she didn't. Yet it
begs the question: why does it have to be that way? Which then begets
this: there's no character or fortitude in Katie (or Alex, for that matter) if
Katie stays in South Carolina, which makes her even more hollow and the
story more pathetic and pointless. What on earth is the point of "Safe
Haven"?
The film's benign trappings make its subtext all the more dangerous, and
disturbing.
There's a lack of cohesion, emotion and chemistry between Mr. Duhamel
and Ms. Hough, and not enough of a backbone in the story to make me (and perhaps
you) even care about them. We get contortions of Ms. Hough in one scene at
her refrigerator in her remote home in the woods, contortions devised solely and
gratuitously for ogling. There's no other reason for the scene. Ms. Hough's Katie's
short shorts seem to get shorter as the film progresses. Her cleavage
begins to show more as the story wears on. "Safe Haven" tries to mix a
cold, blunt thriller with the sparkling, warm innocence it projects but the
results are
incongruous, and as a romance the film's emotions and feelings are false and
desperately lacking.
Even more insulting: Alex, who says his wife has been lost or has left (implying
at least to a dimwitted me that she has died), has a business -- he has money --
and is doing well. It wouldn't be a huge sacrifice for Alex to join Katie
on that ferry and leave
South Carolina behind. For all the selfish men out there, believe it or
not there are actually men who leave their cities and countries to be with the
woman they love. "Safe Haven" makes Alex look toothless, and the
screenwriters Dana Stevens (a female writer, not Dana Stevens the
female film critic at Slate magazine) and Leslie Bohem (a male
screenwriter) muddy and muddle the waters with lots of incoherence. Did
they write this screenplay after having a dirty weekend? After smoking a
lot of pot? After binge drinking? After reading Mr. Sparks' book
backwards?
While some women make bad choices in real life relationships, Mr. Hallstrom's film suggests that
a woman will automatically submit to the words "I love you" when they are spoken
by a man -- in just the fashion Renee Zellweger's "Jerry Maguire" character says
to Tom Cruise, "you had me at hello." Worse yet, in "Safe Haven" Alex
stands by, watching as Katie gets attacked by her abusive husband.
That's right -- Alex watches, and does not intervene to help
Katie, the very woman he said he loved just a few scenes before. You have
to see this to literally believe it. (No you don't.)
The sadder reality is that -- yes, you guessed it -- Katie gratefully hugs and
kisses Alex after her ordeal ends. It's an absolutely insane, painful
scene and makes Katie look very foolish indeed. Again, young women
flocking to "Safe Haven" to see Mr. Duhamel topless will be fed a much more
subtle and insidious idea and undercurrent: that a woman can't chart a course
for herself without a man -- a handsome, dashing, muscular man at that.
Such audiences will also be fed the weird idea that a man who says "I love you"
without really showing it is instantly to be trusted.
"Safe Haven" does men a disservice too, implying that men aren't able to defend
the women they love, and condone domestic violence against them. Are
there some men like this? Yes, but I wish once, just once, films like
this, particularly a film that emerges from the Abercrombie & Sparks
line of entertainment would do something bold: be more dimensional than the
cardboard Hallmark characters and atmosphere "Safe Haven" trumpets.
If that's not enough, the ending of "Safe Haven" is one of the biggest, lamest
cop-outs in movie history. It is infuriating, cheap, and so ridiculous.
Such a hokey, lazy ending. Incredibly manipulative, cynical and downright
insulting. I wanted to throw up but lacked the intelligence to do so.
My vomit would have been more dramatic than this awful, wretched film.
Such a manipulative, monstrous piece of excrement should never have seen the
light of day, but sadly the exploitative, nonsensical "Safe Haven" will make much
more money than
"Middle Of Nowhere", a thoughtful, meditative and
intelligent romance -- ever will. Sadly and more telling: Ms. Hough was
"extremely ill" at the LA. red carpet premiere for "Safe Haven".
Reportedly, Ms. Hough, 24, was "forced to walk" the carpet despite having a
102-degree fever.
"Are you kidding me?," I told an assistant publicist when asked for my reaction
to "Safe Haven". That was my reaction. Ladies and
gentlemen, please watch
"An Affair To Remember" on Valentine's Day. It's
not all roses, but it is real. You will see men and women with real
emotion. Having fun. Thinking. Loving. Laughing.
Lamenting. That is what fine romances are made of.
The tagline for "Safe Haven", yet another in a series of puzzling recent films
from Mr. Hallstrom ("Salmon
Fishing", "Dear John", the latter another Sparks adaptation) is, "you
know it when you find it." Well, I've found it alright: this movie
stinks. Kleenex need not be invited to your local theater if you see
this painfully long, two-hour movie. I don't know what I found more
troubling: the film itself, or the sound of some audience members shedding tears
at the end of this junk.
"Safe Haven" occupies a safe haven with
"Identity
Thief" as the year's two worst films thus far.
Also with: Noah Lomax, Irene Ziegler.
"Safe Haven" opens on Valentine's
Day (Thursday)
across the U.S. and Canada. The film is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture
Association Of America for thematic material involving threatening behavior, and
for violence and sexuality. The film's running time is one hour and 55 minutes.
COPYRIGHT 2013. POPCORNREEL.COM. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
FOLLOW
MOVIE REVIEWS |
INTERVIEWS |
YOUTUBE |
NEWS
|
EDITORIALS | EVENTS |
AUDIO |
ESSAYS |
ARCHIVES |
CONTACT
| PHOTOS |
COMING SOON|
EXAMINER.COM FILM ARTICLES
||HOME