Safe Haven is very much of the same tone of Spark’s previous work: Katie (Julianne Hough) is a mysterious young woman who arrives in a quaint seaside town to start new life. This new life turns out to be making out a lot with Alex (Josh Duhamel), a hot widower with attractive children. That is, however, until her dark past comes back to haunt her ...
To me, Safe Haven was three different films. For the first hour it was a romance, solidly working its way through every cliché of the genre: sunsets, spontaneously getting caught in the rain, pashing up against trees, etc, etc. It even replicated The Notebook’s iconic paddle boat scene, thinking that if they replaced the boat with a canoe no-one would notice. I noticed. Then all of a sudden, I was watching a thriller, which is where the film saved itself. There was an impressive twist, a genuinely scary villain and even a little violence – next to A Walk To Remember, Safe Haven looks like Django Unchained.
But for the last two minutes, the film – without giving too much away – turned supernatural, in probably the most bizarre and unintentionally hilarious climax to the story possible. At this point the girl next to me aggressively hissed “what?!” at the screen, and I have to agree with her sentiments, the ending is bananas. But as I forewarned, this genre just ain’t my jam. I’m sure there are those who wouldn’t mind seeing two beautiful people getting a second chance at love to a soundtrack of soft acoustic guitars. But even if you are that way inclined, I’d wait for the DVD.
2/5