It
being Valentine’s Day weekend Hollywood, naturally, offers a romantic
Nicholas Sparks film “Safe Haven” based on one of his many books.. In
most films logic has to be left at the door but with this one also leave
your brains there.

The
opening scene shows Katie (Julianne Hough) running from what could be a
murder scene. In the fastest time ever in a film she cuts and dyes her
hair, gets on a bus going to Atlanta, even though the police are looking
for her, gets off in a small town and within minutes gets a job, rents a
cabin, meets a guy Alex (Josh Duhamel) who lost his wife 2 years
previously to cancer and is bringing up their two kids Lexi (Mimi
Kirkland) who was too young to really remember her and Josh (Noah Lomax)
who misses her and, by the way, Alex gives Katie a bike in the middle
of the night since she doesn’t have any transportation, though she
really doesn’t need it--remember this is a small town--and meets Jo, her
neighbor who lives down the way. Whew! We haven’t even gotten into the
main thrust of the story.

There
isn’t a cliche that the director, Lasse Hallstrom, or the
screenwriters, Dana Stevens and Gage Lansky, don’t love and feel they
have to put up on the screen. We haven’t even mentioned fireworks
filling the sky, children in jeopardy, homes on fire, a policeman who
misuses his power, canoe rides, lovers getting caught in the rain not to
forget the very unbelievable ending though the lovers and kids will
live happily ever after as this is a Hollywood/ Nicholas Sparks movie.
There is a thriller aspect added to the love story but adds nothing to
the film.

Josh
Duhamel goes through the 5 o’clock shadow stage here and there while
Julianne Hough looks better as a blonde than a brunette but with either
color there is very little chemistry between the leads. Mimi Kirkland
and Noah Lomax do a good job while most of the supporting cast blend
into the wood.

While
you can’t say Hallstrom does a bad job there are one too many poorly
edited scenes and as a director he really doesn’t bring anything special
to the film.

The star of the movie is really the small town of Southport,  North Carolina, which is movie perfect.

Though
“Safe Haven” is being touted as a romantic film the best romantic film
available on the big screen today is “Amour” that shows what love really
is all about.