Film: The Vow
Rating: PG-13
By Casadie Pederson
Throughout The Vow you can’t help but have a heavy heart. The film tells the story of Leo (Channing Tatum) and Paige (Rachel McAdams), who – you guessed it – meet by chance, fall in love, and get married. But five years into their relationship, a horrific car accident leaves Paige with severe brain trauma. After waking from her coma, Paige has no memory of Leo or their life together; over five years of her memory has vanished.
Five years earlier, Paige abandoned the life of being an upper-middle class law student for a career as an artist. She also dumped her high-class fiance Jeremy at the time. She meets Leo, and finally is accepted for who she truly is. After the accident, Leo fights with every piece of his heart and soul for the girl of his dreams but also must face Paige’s estranged family, whom she hasn’t spoken to since before her life with Leo. Paige though, insists she be close to her family as she has no recollection of the estrangement. By mid-film we learn of the events that caused Paige to close the chapter with her family and she must put the pieces of her life back together or change the way she dealt with her past before the accident. The movie unravels events that make us all question our life’s decisions if we had to do it all over again. Would we do it the same? Would we still end up right where we are meant to be? Would we treat the people in our lives just the same or perhaps differently?
Early on we learn this film is based on true events. Tatum’s portrayal of Leo is one that makes you feel the anger, frustration, and sadness combined into a large pool of emotion that doesn’t leave a dry eye in the house. McAdams brings with her solid romantic film expertise, because the storyline is somewhat similar to that of another one of her films,The Notebook. Both films do an excellent job portraying real-life events.
Overall – predictable at times, but a great love story if you are a rom-com lover such as myself.
The verdict: 3/5 – Great date night movie.
