Safe Haven (2013)

Am I Missing Something?

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

First off, I didn't read the book. I wish I had, but now I certainly will after having just watched the film. It is a bit choppy. You can definitely tell that there are key elements missing from the script which obviously had to be cut down from the book. I hate that. This film reminded of Sleeping with the Enemy in A LOT of ways, but in the case of this film there were a few pleasant and rather touching surprises. I was not expecting such a smart little twist! Of course like most films there was a lot of smh moments like when the little girl was asked about Katie by the police man and she did good by lying, but never thought to mention it to Katie or her Dad!?!? Even when her Dad immediately came in after he asked. lol It's ridiculous things like that that really make me frustrated with movies. The whole husband thing was hard to believe as well. Not enough back story and how was he running around chasing her seemingly unwounded right after she stabbed him!? There's more ridiculousness, but I don't recall the specifics. I tried to just let it slide for the sake of enjoyment. It's still a wonderful film. I just wish they would have worked harder on the kinks and gave us more. This story deserved better, but I still HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

This is a great movie. The actors, including those that played the kids, are fabulous. The portrayals of abuse are realistic and really well played, and they really drew me in. It does have a bit of a kooky ending, which I didn't appreciate the first time I saw it, but it didn't bother me after that. (I have now seen this several times.) Definitely a keeper, and a very sweet film.

I liked this movie a lot. One of my favorite Nicholas Sparks' movie adaptations because I love how true it was to the book. Josh Duhamel and Julianne Hough had great chemistry together and Lexie and Josh played very cute kids. When I read the book, I was a little apprehensive of how the movie would turn up because sometimes, the Nicholas Sparks movies are either not true to the book, or are true to the book, but it's just bad ('The Lucky One', 'The Best of Me'), and then there are the Nicholas Sparks movies that altered some of the book scenes to make the movie story better ('A Walk to Remember', 'Dear John') and those movies came out very good. I really like how, when watching, the audience gets a glimpse of Katie's married life and what she did to escape. I also like how, right in the beginning of the movie, the audience sees Katie bursting out of the house frantically; I like how it keeps the audience in suspense of what had happened earlier and what she will do next. The only thing I don't like about this movie is the fact that the daughter's name was changed Alex's daughters name from Kristen to Lexie. Personally, I like it when movies stay true to the book, including keeping the character names the same in the book as in the movie. Other than that though, I really like how this movie turned out. However, even though I really love this movie, I don't think it deserves a perfect score of a 10. I don't know, maybe something about this movie, but I don't think it's a 10. It's definitely a 9, and I wouldn't hesitate to suggest this movie on any night.

The basic plot revolves around an attractive young woman running away from her own murderous past, or so it seems at first. There are deeper subplots, but let us not ruin potential viewers' potential suspense by explicating them. Let us just say that she settles in a small town and tries to rebuild her life from scratch, but the ghost of Christmas past comes back to haunt her.That is the basic plot. The basal genre of the movie is romance (considering that it is based on a Nicholas Sparks' novel it is only natural for it to be a romantic movie) with mild hints of thriller and drama. One could best label it as a romantic thriller.Julianne Hough plays the lead woman and Josh Duhamel the leading man. Their performances are nothing praise-worthy, but they are not bad either. However, they do lack on-screen chemistry as I have felt no electricity, no Sparks (get it?) between them. Moreover, that says a lot about the movie as it lasts for nearly two hours, which means that it took its time developing the story that led to nothing. The one weak link in the cast is David Lyons whose performance is ridiculously exaggerated. It just ruins the character.The story is a two hour rundown of the most common clichés found in movies with two notable efforts to produce the much needed twist. One works rather well, the other one leaves you wondering why. Nevertheless, between those two, there is not much to work with. Therefore, the story is awful, it develops slowly (that is, it is boring at times), and the script is no deeper than the safe romantic shallow waters this movie treads. It just might be the worst movie based on one of Sparks' books (but to be fair it is not much to begin with).Another low point of notice is music. It is probably one of the most cringe- and puke-worthy soundtracks I have ever heard. However, I do not believe that I am the target audience so some people might find it OK. I found it laughably horrible and someone ought to have lost his or her job over it (I am looking at you Deborah Lurie).There you have it. This movie boils down to an overly long, overly cheesy and mellow romantic movie, with a subtext of thriller in it, which unfortunately leads to nowhere. At times boring, at times cringe-worthy in the acting department, most of the time puke-worthy in the music department, with characters you could not care less about, with twists that work only half the time and you could not care less about, it is an emotionless, forgettable romance.Visit HatedCritic blog for more reviews.