It might be a slight bit of credit for a pretty bad movie to call its general premise unconventional. The Vow, the latest Valentines Day opening romantic drama starring generally awesome looking people, really isn’t all that romantic for a film about a man trying to reclaim a somewhat lost love. It’s a big part of the film’s slightly begrudging appeal that it never really resorts to fake cuteness to winthe audience over, but the film itself still manages to be fairly inert thanks to some poor casting decisions and a script that really doesn’t give the audience any real reason to care about the film’s ultimate outcome.
Happily married couple Paige (Rachel McAdams) and Leo (Channing Tatum) suffer a tragedy following a horrific car accident that leaves Paige with a severe case of amnesia. The only memories Paige has are of her life from five years prior when she was engaged to someone totally different (Scott Speedman), still talked to her wealthy, estranged parents (Sam Neill and Jessica Lange), and she was still in law school. Leo tries his best to help Paige remember the good times they had, but he is constantly stymied by her overbearing parents wanting her to come home with them and by Paige herself. Most of the time Paige can faintly see what she once saw in Leo, but she would prefer the life she remembers over the one she would have to recreate.
The film gets off to an all too briefly sweet and touching start as Leo looks back on the early days of their relationship. It feels quite real and almost to an oddly refreshing yet completely banal degree. Pre-accident Paige and Leo seem like believable and likable characters, but sadly we aren’t in their world long enough to care about the real thrust of the story dealing with Paige’s old life coming back into play.
Director Michael Sucsy shows some interesting visual flair in the early going, but once the film turns into a dreadfully standard Hollywood style film about the war between the classes, he seems to lose his interest. The film falls into a real dull groove as theaudience watches the same exact scenario plays out repeatedly. Leo tries to tell Paige about her past. Paige is accepting at first, then she freaks out and runs back to her parents. Leo gets frustrated and lets Paige know his feelings and how hard all of this is for him. Repeat for the last 90 minutes of the film until it simply ends.
Tatum actually does a fine job as Leo, the good natured blue collar boy without any parents. I never really understood the flack this guy gets from some people. He picks roles that he knows he can play, and the role of Leo isn’t that different. He brings a sort of rugged realness that the rest of the film seems to lack, and it doesn’t hurt that he plays quite possibly the only likable character in theentire film.
That’s the other major problem. Because the audience never sees too much about Paige’s life with Leo before the accident, her jarring transition back to an ivy-league, blue blooded, “woo girl” makes her so thoroughly off putting that it’s hard to imagine that Leo would even want her back in the first place. McAdams, however, seems to have no interest in this character and any lack of chemistry between the leads falls squarely on her shoulders. Making matters worse are some shockingly hammy performances fromthe usually solid Lange and Neill. They constantly seem a handlebar moustache away from tying their own daughter to some train tracks somewhere.
The Vow isn’t so much awful as it is awfully dull. Only one half of the romantic coupling really works, but the film doesn’t even makethe audience care that even that half is working. I can’t believe I would’ve ever said this, but this is a film that actually needs more flashbacks to succeed.
Rating: 
Rated PG
Cast: Rachel McAdams, Channing Tatum, Jessica Lange
Directed by: Michael Sucsy
Top image: A scene from The Vow. Courtesy Sony Pictures.
