Safe Haven

Title: Safe Haven

Director: Lasse Hallstrom

Screenwriters: Leslie Bohem, Dana Stevens

Producers: Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey, Ryan Cavanaugh, Nicholas Sparks

Cast: Julianne Hough, Josh Duhamel.

Popcorn Movies Rating: 4

Safe to Say: Worst Nicholas Sparks Adaptation

By:  David Maldonado

It’s sad that the Valentine’s weekend movie is not worth the money, not even considering that is a “romantic” movie.

Katie (Julianne Hough), it’s a girl running from a crime. She gets on a bus and end up on Southport, North Carolina. She decide to stay on that little town where she meets Alex (Josh Duhamel), a widow, father of two, fall in love with him but, Katie’s past is hunting her and soon will find her.

I saw a TV Spot the other day that said “the best Nicholas Spark movie since The Notebook), I thought that was interesting but, the truth is that is far from being that. Take this from a guy that doesn’t like Nicholas Sparks work, Dear John, The Last Song and The Lucky Ones were better movies than this one. The first half hour of the film is about Katie walking on the street, the forest, getting a job (finding one the first day), walking home, going to work, meets Alex, walk back home, go to work, keep walking, go to Alex store again and BOOM it start the second act of the movie. The results: a movie where happens nothing half the time.

Obviously the story of this film isn’t strong enough. Producers should think twice before deciding which book of Nicholas Sparks they will adapt. Being the author of The Notebook doesn’t mean that everything he makes is good. I haven’t read Safe Haven but I suppose that is a story where the entire dilemma takes place inside the protagonist mind. That’s a problem because a movie is about what you show and tell, but you can’t show thoughts. So in this movie there isn’t much to tell, just two persons meeting, dating and falling in love. In the end there is a small confrontation but that’s it.

I have no idea how Katie’s character is describe on the book, but I do know that Julianne Hough was a bad choice. This girls looks older than her 24 years old, but when she acts (especially when she talks), is evident that she lacks the maturity and experience to do this kind of character. In Rock of Ages she was the perfect naïve girl moving to the big city, but Katie is something else and she wasn’t the right choice. It gets worse when you put her side by side Josh Duhamel. At his 40 Duhamel is the perfect widow father of two kids, he has the sympathy and charisma to play it, but it doesn’t look like the couple to a 24 years old.  Remember that people thought that he was too young to be the love interest of Sarah Jessica Parker in New Years Eve? Well, is the same here, only that this time he is the one that is too old for her.

As a production, there is not much to tell. The soundtrack isn’t something special, the photography is not interesting and the production design is too simple: just a forest, a dock and a couples of stores. It is hard to believe that this is the movie of the three times Oscar nominee, Lasse Hallstrom. The truth is that this movie is hard to watch, it doesn’t have the story or development to last the 112 minutes that last. You can feel every single minute.

Honestly, I can only thing in one kind of audience for this movie: the hard fans of Nicholas Sparks, because doesn’t matter how much the movie will suck, they will enjoy it. Only those fans will enjoy two hours of “nothing happens”. This movie is cataloged by “romance” just because is about to people who fall in love, but is not even romantic.