REVIEW: The Vow

Directed by Michael Sucsy

1 hour, 44 minutes

From Screen Gems and Spyglass

Starring

Rachel McAdams

Channing Tatum

Jessica Lange

Sam Neill

Wendy Crewson

Scott Speedman

The chores are done.  I watered the plants, cleaned the bird's cage, breakfast is over and the dishes cleaned.  What else?  Not into starting my new book or doing the laundry.  Not enough snow to shovel.  Hmmmm.  I know.  I'll go to the movies.  What a novel idea.

Like a wise old owl, I already know there's really nothing out there that's gonna trim my tail feathers.  There's no way to have a real hoot at the movies in the first quarter of most any year unless it's spill-off from the former year.  On a scale of 1-10, in November-December, I am expecting films to be 9s and 10s.  In February, I whoop it up if I get a six.

The Vow is a valentine to young lovers.  It's not an accident that the film was released at just this time.  It features two of the hottest young stars in the universe today in Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum who have more than a whiff of chemistry.  Truthfully?  I could look at them both all day long.

The movie itself can be compared to eating Chinese food...  an hour later you want something else.  There's not much here to remember for much longer than it takes to finish your drink and popcorn.  That doesn't mean there's anything terrible... there's just not enough substance to form an imprint.

Based on a true story, they are a young Chicago married couple (the city is filmed very affectionately); she is a sculptor and he produces music (doesn't anyone work in insurance or at Taco Bell anymore?).  Involved in a car accident, she loses her short-term memory and therefore doesn't know who he is.  She spends the rest of your time trying to recover her memory and he lives an angst-ridden existence while trying to help her.

Despite the gravity of the memory-loss theme, The Vow is still a featherweight look at the old boy-gets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets- girl-back mode.  Both McAdams and Tatum, on the road to becoming quite good actors, have detoured into fluff of late.

She has one of the brightest smiles and cheeriest young faces in films today, a beautiful young woman.  He emotes with an almost constant confused look.  I really do wonder if that's intentional or just the way it is.  He did do a great deal more smiling than he usually does... probably because he got to look at her.  My old pal Jessica Lange must have needed the money to have accepted "the mother" role. 

None of the backstory was particuarly interesting... it felt like filler and greater attention could have been paid to the main theme.  It all would have been woven a bit more tightly had we known more about their relationship prior to the accident but since it happens in the first minutes of the film, all that was lost.  It all felt a little rushed to me.

I saw the real couple on The Today Show this morning and must say I found them far more interesting than the film.  But tell you what... the 20-sumthins will like it.  And there's certainly something to be said for liking a film you've just paid top dollar to see.

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