After digging through my tightly condensed storage space in my apartment, I was able to find my laptop from years past, one that had gotten me through some rough times, stood beside me through the good, and now limps along without a working battery, DVD drive, and is likely to overheat if you look at it wrong or even use too many vowels or guttural sounds in a sentence. It also likes to keep the cursor from movie while I type, so I could be typing away for a solid ten seconds before I finally get to see all of the spelling mistakes that I have to go back and sort out.
That being said, I don't believe I have shied away from admitting my issues with stress and anxiety. This computer, the one I am now using, is not a good one to use when one is prone to anxiety. It is essentially the stress-out Jack-in-the-box that could pop at any time, sending the user into a fit of rage, reaching for anything that could be hurled across an apartment and causing very creative strings of profanity that really do not make any sense to anyone within earshot of the incident. Essentially I am saying, I will try and keep the blog up to date, but there is also a possibility that my sanity will be tested in the attempt to do so.
And now, how about I actually get to a review. For an upcoming podcast on love (because of the upcoming calendar day that declares we have to buy flowers, chocolates, and greeting cards to express our love) with a number of films that take a different look at love, I thought it would be a good idea to include an uber-generic Hollywood love tale and give it a shot. Enter The Vow, in all of its heart wrenching, tear-jerking, glory.
I enjoy a good romantic movie from time to time, as it
reminds me of what it is to be a human being, with the emotions and tensions
that we get around the desire to pair up with a compatible mate, and just how
strong love can be when life tests us. A
good romantic movie, however, is a rare beast, one that is elusive and
skittish, hard to find in its natural habitat of Hollywood. Most of what lurks around is far from good,
movies that simulate unrealistic people, improbable relationships that would
not generally last the long haul (usually based on a case of lusty pants and
butterflies in the stomach), and motives that are not what genuine, authentic
love is all about. Perhaps that is
because genuine, authentic love is what survives the everyday, the hum-drum in
and outs of a work-a-day, routine lifestyle.
That is not the type of love people daydream about, so that is not what
Hollywood produces.
Some people want to escape in the fairy tale. The rich and beautiful life of the prince and
the princess, with evil and cruel family members, or scandalous outsiders who
are bent on ruining true love. The
premise of the fairy tale is what lives in most romantic movies, and it is
usually as stimulating or appealing as a WWE action movie starring John Cena or
Randy Orton. The Vow, starring Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams, falls on the
side of typical Hollywood romantic dribble with moments and shades of the
possibility of being something better.
Unfortunately, like a disappointing pet that pees on the rug when you
know it is capable of being decent and doing otherwise, good intentions and
possibilities don’t win the day and we are left focusing more on the sad,
smelly mess that we have on our hands.
This is a movie about a beautiful, ideal, yuppie couple who
think it is an awesome idea to have sex in the middle of an intersection during
a snowstorm, and the trauma that comes from their vehicle (pre-coitus) being
nailed from behind by a giant salting truck.
The movie does not do well in establishing people who I can feel any
kind of emotional attachment to, or sympathy for, because, well, they are
almost annoyingly in love and perfect.
And, they do something as incredibly stupid as attempting to be intimate
during poor visibility and nasty road conditions. If anyone deserves to be put into a coma, it
is people with such poor understanding of road safety and traffic rules.
Anywho, as the fairy tale goes, Paige (McAdams) flies
through the windshield during the accident (because she took it off to get down
and dirty with her husband) , is in a coma, and, when she comes to, has no
memory of her husband Leo (Tatum). Along
with the overly nauseating introduction that we get to this young, perfect
couple, we also get a philosophical and intellectual Hallmark style narration
from Leo, a breakthrough revelation that serious moments in our lives affect
us, become part of our past, and define who we are. It is a good thing that this movie unravels
the mysteries of the universe, because there is no way, whatsoever, that such
thinking could have ever been considered common sense.
It is indeed true that I believe director Michael Sucsy
delivered an extremely careful and overly simplistic view on love and the
couple in the first act of the movie.
Luckily, the film actually attempts to look at the more realistic aspect
of love, and that is the devotion that can be achieved with a good spouse and
the desire humans have to do everything they can to resist losing someone
special. The majority of the film is Leo
realizing that his wife remembers nothing of him at all, and having to accept
that she is a very different person from when they met. At the same time, he is forced to practice
patience as he makes every attempt to help her regain her memory and fall in
love with him again.
I think Tatum is what saved this movie from being an
ultimate disaster for me (and I am not referring to being able to see his
naked, arse, although that is what some people will be excited about). It is a character who, after the tragedy (and
not for the whole time), is someone whose motives and actions are ones that
seem real, believable, and relatable.
His struggle to get back the person he once knew, but to also come to
realize that his wife has been replaced by someone new, has some moments of being
touching and sincere. Tatum’s
performance, though not perfect, is an indicator that there is some serious
talent to be mined in him, and that his future looks good if he keeps taking
different roles that stretch himself. He
is able to display some charisma and charm that is a perfect fit for who his
character is, and, I will fully admit, there were times in this movie where I
was rooting for him.
Tatum and the character of Leo aside (oh, and the
performance of Sam Neil as Paige’s staunch lawyer father), the rest of the
movie was pretty much what these types of movies are. Sucsy seemed to play it quite safe, and to
give us a lot of typical characters, moments, and struggles that we could
predict would happen as soon as we learned of the plot. There was a chance to go the route of a
non-typical ending, something which would have really elevated this film
further, but it is a by the numbers film which keeps it from having its own
true, unique personality that could allow it to stand above the crowd. With the tone and the feel of the film, I
think an unconventional ending could have still played well with the audience
who could have happily accepted an alternative concept of happiness.
This really does choose to stick to the modern day fairy
tale, as it presents the prince and the princess in a modern day
interpretation, and I suppose that is why ‘pass the Kleenex’ romance movies are
usually about rich, perfect yuppies in loft apartments. Yep, of course they have one of those, a big
ass one, at that. Nice, proper, stylish
clothes that are not true to the actual lives of the characters. Paige is an emerging artist (not much money
there), and Leo just opened his own recording studio (not much money there),
yet the characters are given the lives of opulence, even though we are tried to
be told in the film that they have chosen a life of simple means. That’s the romance. Choosing passionate work, being paired up
with a perfect soul-mate, and still being able to live in a castle. While that is the fairy tale, I seriously
don’t care if an over-privileged ‘starving artist’ has her knight in shining
armour and a Colgate smile save her from her rich parents and her law
degree. I care about people who feel
understandable, and that’s where this movie really falls short.
Rating – 2 out of 4 stars
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