I Love Valentine's Day!: The Vow

The story is about a young married couple--creative types--who suffer marriage stress when the wife loses her short term memory in a car accident, basically all her memories with her husband. Paige (Rachel McAdams) reverts back to her personality before they married--she's amorous with her ex fiancé (Scott Speedman), loves her parents (Sam Neill, Jessica Lange), and has no desire to sculpt even though she is very talented, instead going back to law school which was a wish of her father’s. Understandably this upsets her dedicated husband Leo (Channing Tatum), who tries to rekindle her memories of him.


The film begins with sweet scenes between the two, showing how they met, fell in love and married. After losing her memory in the accident, Paige is wary of living with someone she sees as a stranger, and finds safety in people from her previous life, namely her parents and old flame. Leo wants to allow Paige to take her recovery in a way that is natural to her, and is willing to step back a bit from what he sees as intrusiveness from those in her past. But we can see he is anxious, concerned and loving and tries hard not to be shunted aside. When Paige discovers new facts from her past, she comes to understand why she broke away from her family and fiancé.  Leo though makes the ultimate sacrifice when he realizes he can love her most by letting her go.

Although this is based a real story it still has Hollywood-style elements that seem written to divide the couple in the middle of the film, so I don't know how close to the facts it is. It does not deal too much with what could have been the heavy drama of the story, instead focusing more on the romantic elements and the divisive dramatic elements. But it does appear that it stuck to the true to life, slightly messy but ultimately happy ending.

McAdams’ character wasn't the usual type she’s often done, or one you would often find in a romance novel. Here she reflects the confusion suffered by the real Paige, as well as the anxiety everyone is causing while convincing her to be with them. Although Leo’s romantic actions and sacrifice seem almost too good to be true, Tatum gave the character personality and charm, which is a step up from many of the wooden performances I’ve seen him do in the past.  I don't particularly like either of these attractive actors, but I think because the film did not make everything truly happy won me over to their performances.

As with many movies taking place in a “real” city there were many establishing shots of Chicago neighborhoods although it appeared from the credits that some of it might have been shot in Toronto. It looked like the film kept to real businesses this couple encountered (or the types of businesses this arty couple would have hung out at), lending it a more local feel. Filming in Canada may also explain that the supporting cast playing friends of the couple were mostly unknown to me; they still felt and looked like the arty and attractive types of friends these two would have. Tatiana Maslany performed well as a friend and workmate of Leo’s that offers him support and advice.