Music, Style & Culture

The Vow

Despite the dud casting of Channing Tatum, it works hard to be an endearing tribute to true love.

Released in cinemas 10th February 2012.

Just in time for Valentine's Day is a sweet but underwhelming romance, based on a true story. Even though it uses the dreaded amnesia trope, a refreshing lack of manipulation means there's plenty to enjoy in this good-natured weepie.

Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum are the loved-up husband and wife whose lives are shattered after a car accident - when Paige (McAdams) emerges from her coma she has no memory of her husband Leo (Tatum). Under a doctor's advice that she should recover in her present-day surroundings, Paige moves back in with Leo and the couple have to work at falling in love all over again. Enter complications, such as the fact the bohemian artist's last known experience involves being engaged to smarmy suit Jeremy (Scott Speedman) and sipping cocktails with ex-sorority sisters.

Woe betide any man who stars in a soppy romance opposite McAdams, for they will inevitably suffer unfortunate comparisons with her Notebook co-star Ryan Gosling. Alas, Tatum is something of a passionless, wooden, charisma black hole. The sparky, naturally adorable McAdams compensates, but you're rooting for her happiness, not his.

Leo is forced to date Paige all over again, and just when things get too sickly sweet, The Vow reins it back in with a dose of finely-adjusted reality. This stickler for honesty means the film, ironically, doesn't have an emotional impact, petering out in ordinary fashion without a rain-soaked dramatic showdown to tug at the heartstrings - all part of its charm. However, Paige doesn't seem that alarmed to have a naked stranger walking in on her, and the emotional impact of her injury is never really examined in great detail. You wish director Michael Sucsy (making his feature debut after the award-winning HBO series Grey Gardens) spent less time trying to coax McAdam's gorgeous dimples to emerge in funny episodes of cuteness and more time giving her some serious moments of recovery.

Interesting support comes from heavyweights Sam Neill and Jessica Lange as Paige's snooty, disapproving parents, who had no knowledge of her shacking up with a mere commoner; Lange relishes the all-powerful screen presence she's developed alongside her outstanding turn in American Horror Story. There are a number of nameless, underwritten quirky friends who drift in and out of the obligatory gorgeous loft studio that the supposedly poor and humble couple reside in, but the film belongs to McAdams.

Despite the dud casting of Tatum, The Vow works hard to be an endearing tribute to true love, and the harshest of cynics couldn't knock it.

Rating: 6/10