Beauty School : Safe Haven (2013)

by Broken Headphones When I agreed to see "Safe Haven" with my girlfriend over Valentine's Day weekend, I already knew what I'd be getting myself into: another shoddy adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel with all the trimmings: a good-looking cast, a plot filled with all the sappy clichés you'd expect to appear, and some truly terrible dialogue uttered in typical monotone fashion. And just as expected, the film ended up delivering all of that, plus quite a few other things that ultimately made it one of the most unintentionally hilarious romantic dramas ever made. No, really, I'm serious. The whole film, from start to finish, is essentially just one big awkward comedy. The main characters, played by Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel, are so poorly developed and inherently generic that whenever they try to display even an ounce of credible romantic authenticity, it comes across as just plain laughable. I'd especially say the same for the rest of the cast, particularly the clichéd villain, who we all clearly know is evil because he carries a bottle of vodka in his hand wherever he goes while a loud, menacing score plays in the background. Nothing is subtle or even that surprising about any of the boring characters that plague this emotionally bland romance, but it's the ludicrous plot twists that really set it apart from other movies like "Dear John" and "The Lucky One." I actually had to keep myself from laughing at just how unbelievably ludicrous and shamelessly forced upon the story these twists were. One of them is so ridiculous that it just betrays all logic and abruptly ends the film in the most insanely bizarre and sentimentally manipulative way imaginable. It's a suitably nonsensical conclusion to a simple love story gone completely wrong. Hough and Duhamel try their best to bring the most out of their formulaic roles, and the film's picture-perfect Southern backdrop is undeniably gorgeous to look at, but pretty visuals can't make up for flat emotions, hackneyed melodrama, and eye-rolling plot twists, all of which are drenched in a heaping pile of overbearing schmaltz. Still, I truly didn't think "Safe Haven" was downright terrible. It did make for a surprisingly entertaining comedy, after all. Plus, my girlfriend really enjoyed it, so I can't complain too much. At the end of the day, unless you happen to be a diehard fan of Nicholas Sparks dramas or just enjoy watching hilariously bad movies, this one is far from a must-see.

by Anneisowum this was a really great movie and I recommend anyone!

by ecv763 This was the first Nicolas Sparks movie I've seen and I was not impressed. It seemed to drag on and on. The dialogue was uninspired and the story was just dumb in my opinion. Waste of time and money.

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