SAFE HAVEN Review

SAFE HAVEN Review

By Darin Skaggs

     Almost every year there seems to be a film that has a love story, there is a conflict that threatens the relationship, something way over dramatic.  Then there is a happy ending.  These films are all based on popular books by Nicholas Sparks.  Films like these include The Lucky One, Dear John and now the new Sparks film Safe Haven.

     The film is about a lady named Katie.  She hurt maybe even murdered someone.  She spends the first act running away.  There is a cop, Tierney, who is obsessed with finding her. Katie gets to a small town and tries to settle down.  While there she meets Alex, a good looking, good hearted man with an adorable child.  Huh I wonder if they’ll fall in love.  During her time there she also meets a friend named Jo, a kind hearted woman who gives out some advice to Katie.

     Like most of the other Sparks films the second act of the film is almost an extended montage of the two leads falling for each other.  They flirt; someone makes fun of them for glairing too long while the other person is walking away.  This one is cheesy just like the rest and does not really try to do anything to earn a heartwarming relationship. 

     The confusing and mystery aspect of the film is what did Katie do to have the feeling to run away.  The whole time, based on how the cop feels about her and some misleading flashbacks, it feels like Katie is a bad person.  Despite what unravels in the last twenty minutes I do not want Alex and his kid to date a murderer so the love story aspect is not something I am rooting for.  Much like other Sparks films the “villain” character is one note.  He is, for some reason just evil. He does not have any nice characteristics that would make you believe in the previous relationship with the main character.

     For the first three/fourths of this film I was ready to just write it off as another boring light hearted chick flick.  Then something weird happened.  Something crazy.  I won’t go into spoilers, but the film which has been relatively light hearted takes a major dark turn.  There are events that happen to these characters that would be traumatic and some might need therapy after it is all said and done.  Also this film has two unnecessary plot twists.  One you could see coming, but the last one comes totally out of left field.  It has almost nothing to do with the story and could have been left out of the film and had the same result.

     Safe Haven lags for most of the film then takes a crazy turn.  This makes it uneven and bad film.  It tries to do something more exciting than a love story that is threatened by small moments that the characters take too overdramatically.  It tries something new but still falls as flat as the other Sparks films.  It is almost worth watching though for the ridiculousness of the twist. Almost.