Review: 'The Vow'

Film:  The Vow
Director: Michael Sucsy
Cast: Rachel McAdams, Channing Tatum, Sam Neill, Jessica Lange
Rating: *1/2

Do relationships draw their strength from shared experiences alone?  Is it reasonable to expect an amnesic partner to reacquaint herself with her former life? These are some questions raised by the film The Vow.

Sculptor Paige (McAdams) and music producer Leo (Tatum) have the perfect marriage until the fateful car crash and minor coma comes in the way. The girl, who would roll up the car window so as not to let her spouse’s flatulence escape, wakes up to a find a stranger by her bed side. It doesn’t get any better for him with figures of the life she abandoned, come waltzing in through the door. Her family, dominated by her wealthy father (Neill), is determined to see his daughter pass out of law school. While Paige, who has no difficulties recollecting her folk, is only to happy to be manipulated by them.

It’s up to Leo to preserve his wife’s individuality. But can he win her trust first? Oh yeah, and he has a rival in a hotshot lawyer her former lover who she begins cozying up to.

The Vow fails to wow. It can be forgiven for being as predictable. However, the treatment given to the subject isn’t very impressive. Excessive melodrama isn’t witnessed, but neither is there much depth to the characters or comic relief or gravity or plain common sense. Things get silly when it is revealed just why Paige never brought up her folks when she was her former self. The two questions in the beginning of the review aren’t by a long shot the only question this film raises. (Spoiler: Does you’re father cheating on your mother with your best friend, for one, make you want to reassess your life and shift to the city to take up art?)

The ripped Tatum, as the devoted but frustrated husband is definitely less wooden than some of his other roles. McAdams’s performance also contributes in holding the thing together. Her character, in a perpetual state of confusion, is, to the audiences woe, terribly annoying when she is confused. 

Unmemorable and limp, The Vow is a light-weight, one-time watch. Not a terrible love-conquers-all film, at the same time, it isn’t entirely good.