Safe Haven (2013)

Fantastic!

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

In his review of the film Safe Haven posted on RogerEbert.com (which you can access on IMDb), who knew that a flummoxed Richard Roeper not only likes to play film critic but also ghostbuster? If you don't choose to read his review, Mr. Roeper was "flummoxed" (his word) that the reveal at the end of Safe Haven involved a ghost interacting with a character. He called it: "Bat. Bleep. Crazy."So here's a news flash for Mr. Roeper: Sometimes in films ghosts interact with people. They're not documentaries, they're movies, and sometimes in movies ghosts are characters too. No one takes them literally. No one was "flummoxed" when Kevin Costner was having a catch with his deceased dad in Field of Dreams. The ending of Safe Haven was a touching tribute from a deceased wife who wanted her husband to find love; no less touching than the real life wife who wanted the same for her husband and made that her final act on this earth. Her open letter appeared in the March 3, 2017 edition of the New York Times, entitled "You May Want To Marry My Husband." She died ten days later.Richard Roeper is entitled to his opinions, even stupid ones, but we should all be flummoxed that a website dedicated to the incomparable Roger Ebert actually publishes them.

I caught this expertly crafted romantic thriller a few tree rings after it came out (3 to be exact) but this movie has aged better than a Redwood. But it was not a moment too soon. After years of being a journeyman carpenter I had lost my love- affair with wood. Running my fingers down the factory edge of a plank of birch just didn't send shivers up my spine like it did the first time I got behind a lathe. A friend and colleague sensed my creeping disillusionment with my trade coming on like a vicious root-rot. One day he showed up with a box handcrafted from sandalwood with the words "Safe Haven" precision-engrave using a radial saw on the front. Inside was a Blue Ray of Lasse Hallstrom's visionary adaptation of Nicholas Sparks wood-pulp consuming classic novel.Since my Koa wood DVD player was infested with termites around the last solstice, I ended up watching this on demand instead and just acted like I used Larry (colleague) copy. Don't tell him. From the first shot of the Carolina pine at the cabin to the master crafted bubinga beams in Josh Duhamel's office, this thing shook the moths off my love of wood faster than a pallet of cedar pellets. By halfway through the second act I was tung-oiling a stool I made during act one. By the time the final credits rolled I was standing in a pile of sawdust looking at the replica I had made of David Lyon's character's wood-bead car seat cover. I can't recommend this movie enough. Watch it and every day will feel like Arbor Day.

The basic plot revolves around an attractive young woman running away from her own murderous past, or so it seems at first. There are deeper subplots, but let us not ruin potential viewers' potential suspense by explicating them. Let us just say that she settles in a small town and tries to rebuild her life from scratch, but the ghost of Christmas past comes back to haunt her.That is the basic plot. The basal genre of the movie is romance (considering that it is based on a Nicholas Sparks' novel it is only natural for it to be a romantic movie) with mild hints of thriller and drama. One could best label it as a romantic thriller.Julianne Hough plays the lead woman and Josh Duhamel the leading man. Their performances are nothing praise-worthy, but they are not bad either. However, they do lack on-screen chemistry as I have felt no electricity, no Sparks (get it?) between them. Moreover, that says a lot about the movie as it lasts for nearly two hours, which means that it took its time developing the story that led to nothing. The one weak link in the cast is David Lyons whose performance is ridiculously exaggerated. It just ruins the character.The story is a two hour rundown of the most common clichés found in movies with two notable efforts to produce the much needed twist. One works rather well, the other one leaves you wondering why. Nevertheless, between those two, there is not much to work with. Therefore, the story is awful, it develops slowly (that is, it is boring at times), and the script is no deeper than the safe romantic shallow waters this movie treads. It just might be the worst movie based on one of Sparks' books (but to be fair it is not much to begin with).Another low point of notice is music. It is probably one of the most cringe- and puke-worthy soundtracks I have ever heard. However, I do not believe that I am the target audience so some people might find it OK. I found it laughably horrible and someone ought to have lost his or her job over it (I am looking at you Deborah Lurie).There you have it. This movie boils down to an overly long, overly cheesy and mellow romantic movie, with a subtext of thriller in it, which unfortunately leads to nowhere. At times boring, at times cringe-worthy in the acting department, most of the time puke-worthy in the music department, with characters you could not care less about, with twists that work only half the time and you could not care less about, it is an emotionless, forgettable romance.Visit HatedCritic blog for more reviews.

I really liked this movie despite the fact that the book was so much better. What I didn't like was they didn't explain how abusive her marriage actually was. He wasn't just an alcoholic who got angry and hit her once, he was insane. Some of the reviews say that she should have gotten a divorce but it wasn't that simple, she wasn't allowed to leave the house or speak to anyone, she couldn't have a job or friends or a license. He checked up on her throughout the day to make sure she never left the house and took her everywhere she needed to go. She couldn't have just driven to the courthouse to file divorce papers. Anyways, yes, I liked it but they could have added a little more details in my opinion.