IT'S NO "SECRET DWARF HOOKER," BUT STILL: I certainly didn't care that much about Safe Haven, this year's obligatory Nicholas Sparks weepie, but Richard Roeper's disclosure that the movie contains a plot twist that he describes as "Bat. Bleep. Crazy." meant some digging was required. Obviously, this reached beyond the obvious "she's on the run from an abusive/stalker-y ex" plotline that's set up in the trailer and the ads. Fortunately, the AV Club has the spoiler, which we'll discuss after the break.
OK, so Julianne Hough runs away from her abusive ex to a small town in the Carolinas, and is nudged by her neighbor (played by Cobie Smulders) toward a relationship with Josh Duhamel, the town's obligatory hunky widower with adorable young children. It is revealed (apparently in the last 5 minutes of the film) that the "neighbor" is actually the ghost/angel of Duhamel's dead wife, who was nudging the "right" new woman to make sure that her husband/family were well taken care of. Personally, I'll stick with A Good Day To Die Hard for my implausible movie needs this weekend, and perhaps Beautiful Creatures if I want something featuring ridiculous accents.
I saw an early screening and now can't stop saying GHOST MOM!!! to the friend I saw it with. That said, it's totally enjoyable cheese if you like this type of thing.
ReplyDeleteBest response I saw was in the AV Club comments as "And kids, that's how I met your ghost mother!"
ReplyDeleteYeah, just started laughing when I saw that.
ReplyDeleteThis is less surprising and crazy because of course a Sparks book/movie has to have vaguely supernatural/magical quasi-religious overtones. That's kind of his thing. Beyond utter schmaltz.
ReplyDeleteSays the girl who will watch Walk to Remember any time any day and who owns the Notebook. I am not immune.