Safe Harbour (2007)

Excellent, a Must See

Dreadfully Boring

Best movie of this year hands down!

An absolute waste of money

I watched this film because of Melissa Gilbert's presence. I have liked her since her "Little House On The Prarie" days. I must say I concur with other reviews regarding the weak French accent she was able to muster.The best performances were from Liana Liberato (Pip) and Brad Johnson (Matt). They had an actual chemistry that made watching their interactions interesting.I always have problems with films, they simplify lives to fit the time limits available. Take lonely divorcée Matt. Somehow he is able to afford to paint on the beach all day and never worry about earning a living. When his ex-wife moves his daughter to New Zealand with her new husband, he apparently makes no legal effort to prevent a move that will effectively deny any custody rights. His lonely bachelor pad on the beach somehow is always orderly with no housework.When Ophelie (Gilbert) and Pip move back to their main house, it is in perfect order inside and out despite a three-month absence and no visible domestic help.The biggest sticking point is the horrible CGI explosion of the jet carrying Ophelie's husband and son, shown in a flashback. It would require a nuclear explosion to vaporize an aircraft this way. A little creativity could have produced a more reasonable crash that would serve the plot line.The Wexler Center where Ophelie volunteered was obviously not in the San Francisco Bay area. The Palm trees in front of the building are not found that far north. The exteriors were all filmed in the Los Angeles area, except for the Hillsborough location shots for the main house.One minor point I noticed was that the dead son "Chad" was portrayed by Gilbert's real-life son Dakota Brinkman. He had no speaking part, but this may be an attempt to launch him in an acting career.I concur in the other reviews that mention how weak the romance seemed to be. The chemistry was hardly convincing between the two leads. It seems that Melissa Gilbert will be forever condemned to these made-for-TV efforts. That is too bad. She is really a competent actress who is pushing the age limit for lead roles.

Danielle Steel's Safe Harbour is your typical love story about two lonely people who find each other's heart and no explanation is given why they fall for each other except that a love story has to be told. The direct-to-video film stars Melissa Gilbert,Brad Johnson and Liana Liberato.The story is about Pip,a once a normal 11-year-old kid with a happy life, but she became very lonely when her father and brother died at a plane crash. Especially her mother Ophelia,played by Gilbert, has trouble dealing with the loss and becomes depressed. While walking on the beach one day, Pip meets Matt,played by Brad Johnson, an artist with a broken heart. She immediately befriends him. Her mother worries about her friendship and suspects Matt of being a pedophile. However, it doesn't take long before Matt wins over Ophelia's heart as well.The End.One good thing about this film is the setting of the story as it takes place in San Francisco as the movie provides scenery of the great city.But still,aside from a clichéd and predictable story,one notable pain to watch is the performance of Melissa Gilbert as Ophelia.She sounded awful as a French woman. It definitely was not one of her best performances in her career.

This story was as well done as any producer could do with a Danielle Steele book - all of which are exactly alike and with no depth. I would not have selected Melissa Gilbert for the lead role because her French accent is not good and she was not convincing in the part. There should have been a lot more development of the "romance" between the two leads --- all of a sudden, they are in love. Not sure how they got there but don't think the one "rescue" scene on the beach made a heroine out of Gilbert. It would be hard, however, to be convincing in any Danielle Steele movie due to the lack of believable development of a good story. I'd much rather see some movies made of Janet Dailey's Calder movies --- you could sure call on Brad Johnson to play some roles here - his role in Safe Harbour was excellent and well played. He has a quiet strength which shines through despite Gilbert's part. Brad Johnson would also be great in any of Dailey's Calder books. I think we need more early 1900 western type honest to goodness cowboy movies.

As I said, the book was pretty good and this might have been a good movie if Melissa Gilbert hadn't been so horrible and unbelievable in the lead roll. What kind of accent was that suppose to be anyway? It sounded the same as her horrible Russian accent in another movie that I have seen her in. Every time she opened her mouth I cringed. It took 3 tries before I was able to watch the entire movie. Brad Johnson was good as the other lead. I really liked the beach location scenes. They added some much needed brightness to take your mind off of Melissa Gilberts depressing portrayal. I think they could have used San Francisco views more to their advantage though. It looked like the night scenes were actually SF, but I could be wrong. I don't recall the character in the book being this depressing. Please keep Melissa Gilbert out of any future movies that require an accent!