The Vow

There are currently 5 films out that are on our ‘to watch’ list and after some discussion we settled on Man On A Ledge. The timing was right and we both fancied an action movie. However, when we arrived at the cinema we were surprised to learn that it was being shown in screen 8 and was sold out! Screen 8 is my absolute favourite. The seats are big and comfy and it’s smaller and more intimate. I was surprised they were showing Man On A Ledge in there. It’s usually reserved for less popular films or films that have been running for a long time. Anyway we had to make a quick decision. The Woman In Black was our second choice but it wasn’t starting for another half an hour so in the end we settled for THE VOW, starring the glorious Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams.

It’s based on true events and is the story of a young couple, Leo and Paige who are hopelessly in love, when they are involved in a car accident. Leo is relatively unhurt, while Paige, who wasn’t wearing a seatbelt suffers a brain trauma. For some time she is kept in a coma to allow the swelling to go down and the brain to heal but when she wakes her last memory is of when she was in Law School, some years before.  She can’t remember the feud with her family or what caused it or meeting and falling in love with Leo. She can’t remember why she dropped out of her law degree. Her life isn’t what she’d ever have imagined she would have chosen. As she tries to put the pieces back together her ex-fiancé Jeremy (Scott Speedman) appears back on the scene. Her last memory of him is being engaged and totally in love with him and she can’t understand why she ended their relationship. I have to say when I saw Jeremy, I too couldn’t imagine why she would have ended it. He’s a young Patrick Dempsey but better! Not quite so much hair, better skin colour and a perfectly chiselled jawline.

With their relationship on the line Leo has to accept that things may never be the same again, while Paige has to rediscover who she is.

Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams are great together and totally convincing as Leo and Paige. I really enjoyed the narration and the set. Their apartment is the sort of place I always dreamed I would live in as a newly-wed and it was very natural. Films based on true stories are obviously more plausible and I felt that it was a good balance between fact and fiction . For the real Paige, it must have been a totally life defining time. At the end of the film it show’s a picture of the real Paige and Leo and says that to this day, Paige still cannot remember the missing years. 

I had seen the trailer for this film a few times and I think it is one of my favourite trailers. It gave a taste of what the movie was, but just from watching the trailer you would never have been able to tell the whole story and it left you wanting more. I enjoyed The Vow and would recommend it. It didn't try too hard to please and I think that was a winning factor.

My rating 3/5