Tuesday Night is Film Night is here yet again. Doesn't the time fly? It only seems like a week ago when we were watching the last film. Oh. It was a week ago.
Moving on. This week it's feet up and eyes front for;
The Vow
Let's turn things around this week and start at the end of the film. At the start of the end credits, it states that The Vow was based on a true story. Now we didn't know this, so this adds an extra layer of realism to the story, which we have now spoiled by telling you! Whoops.
So The Vow is essentially a dramatic love story which starts with Leo and Paige meeting up and falling in love, which leads to their wedding where they exchange their own set of vows. (Nods to the title). Leo is played ridiculously well by Channing Tatum, ably assisted by the cute and delightfully talented actress; Rachel McAdams as Paige.
The scene setting and layout of the story is dealt with quickly and succinctly, which gave the filmmakers plenty of time to work on the real thread of this touching narrative, which is when Leo and Paige's happy life together is torn asunder when they are involved in a serious and well presented (nice special effects) car accident, which leaves Paige in an induced coma to aid recovery of her neurological trauma. When she comes round, she finds she has lost her recent memory, therefore the last four happy years mean nothing to Paige, but everything to Leo.
The Vow takes this scenario and plays with it and we see from all sides, not just Paige and Leo's, but through family and friends, how this devastating loss affects everybody. Friends are supportive to Leo, but alien to Paige, whereas this juxtaposes with Paige's old friends (prior to Leo) who are fresh in her mind, but alien to Leo. And it is this duality that feeds on through the story, where Paige is seemingly happier in a past life, whilst Leo is trying to bring her back to the current one.
Layered on top of this, we see how family and old friends can be helpful, caring, but also devious and we transpose from a simplex view of old and new, to uncovering what went on in Paige's past that made her turn away from her old friends and family. So the story steers you away from the stereotypical and formulaic standard of the romantic feelgood movie, to something with a bit more gravitas and follows this through to the end. Ideally, at the end things should be back to normal and all happy-ever-after. This is not necessarily the case with The Vow. Some may consider this as a let down, but in reality it's a breath of fresh air to get the unexpected in a film. That's not to say that the film ends badly, on the contrary the film ends well, just not perhaps what you would necessarily expect. Enough said, there's to be no spoilers here.
As for the other cast we should make note of the solid performance by Sam Neill playing Bill Thornton; Paige's father, a perfect casting for this role, a strong forceful character, but with a dark secret. Alongside Neill we have Jessica Lange as Paige's mother; Rita, again another strong character, but with her own story to tell. Scott Speedman played Jeremy, an ex boyfriend from Paige's past, which ends up as her present, due to the memory loss, if you see what we mean? Jeremy was one of those characters that you love to hate and would want to punch squarely on the nose. Speedman displayed that trait so well and the animosity towards him grew. Luckily Leo does indeed punch him in the face, so all's well that ends well in that regard.
Overall The Vow is a great story and the film did not disappoint portraying it. The tension and emotion build, growing and growing, pulling you into the story and because you didn't know which way it would take you, it keeps you gripped right up until the end.
Nice film and so the scores will be somewhere between good and very good on the old TNiFN rate-ometer.
TNiFN Rating 80%
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