Predictably sentimental.By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time," "Cinema Classics," and "On the Marquee"
"I gotta make my wife fall in love with me again." Leo (Channing Tatum)
The Vow is another romance with Nicholas-Sparks-like tragedy and tears the central characters. But beyond the conceit of a wife partially losing her memory after an accident and a husband having to win her back is a commentary about who we are and how we develop our identities through the decisions that impact long after they are made.
I'm not going to go existential on you, as this slow, thin narrative can hardly withstand the philosophy. Yet wife Paige (Rachel McAdams) has a tough go of it trying to figure out how she got to this point when she can remember only up to five years ago where she had a seemingly happy life. As she tries to figure out why she's now an artist when she was then a law student then and why she left that attractive fianc? and her doting family, the writers suggest that some now-forgotten actions and decisions had firmly changed her. She must find those out, not an easy task.
Although the Vow has many melodramatic moments, one of the few shameless elements is Tatum's one-note puppy dog reactions to the challenges of being a hunk who has to work for his lady. Fortunately McAdams has the right balance between befuddlement and resolve while she rarely demands a tear.
While the Artist in its imagination and unreality tells a better tale of becoming who we are, The Vow isn't that bad for throwing all of us into a situation where characters, and presumably ourselves, have to find out who we have become, only to find out that we are what we have always been and continue to stamp out that character in what we do.
In the end it is a romantic clich? vehicle that starts out with the couple meeting cute and end . . . Well, you know if you know romances, so why should I spoil your joy at figuring it all out after the accident.
John DeSando co-hosts WCBE 90.5's It's Movie Time, Cinema Classics, and On the Marquee, which can be heard streaming at http://publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/ppr/index.shtml and on demand at http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/arts.artsmain He is also a film critic for Fox TV 28. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.RR.com