The Vow seemed to have all the components to make a successful chic flic: a hunky leading man Leo (Channing Tatum), a wide-eyed female Paige (Rachel McAdams) and a plot line involving inconvenient love. Excited for the gushy love fest, I dragged my reluctant boyfriend to a Sunday afternoon showing.
The movie had a promising plot: An artsy couple falls in love, gets married and gets an apartment in downtown Chicago. After attending an artsy movie, the couple’s car gets hit by a giant truck, sending the wife, Paige, into a short lived coma. When Paige awakes two days later from the coma, she has completely forgotten the past four years of her life. Coincidentally, she has forgotten she dropped out of law school, stopped speaking to her parents, broke off an engagement, and fell in love with Leo, her husband who was uninjured in the car accident.
The movie recounts Leo’s struggle to win Paige back and convince her that she is now a passionate artist, rather than a boring law student.
The film presented many tear jerking moments, such as when Leo went to tickle Paige and was greeted with a shriek and a jump rather than hysterical laughter, like he expected. It was this moment when Leo realized that Paige was not the same anymore, and that she truly didn’t remember him or their traditions. Moments such as these will touch the hearts of romantics who fear losing their loved ones.
The movie continued in a tear jerking manner as Leo fought for Paige: bringing her home her favorite foods, planning parties for her, playing her formerly favorite music, and more. However, he was constantly stripped of hope as Paige continued to treat him with coldness, striving to return to her parents and her former fiance.
However, so many of these sad moments made the movie hard to watch. The movie was emotionally exhausting: the moments of sadness and heartbreak far outnumbered the moments of passion and happiness. While sad moments are necessary to create a good love story, so are moments that make you glow with happiness.
I won’t reveal the ending to all those who have yet to see it, but I will say it failed to impress. After building up tension and suspense throughout the entire 90 minutes, I needed a catharsis. I needed something huge and passionate to make the entire viewing worth it. I was disappointed. The movie ended in an unexciting, mundane fashion. She didn’t run and leap into his arms, there was no passionate kiss; the movie ended purely in a boring conversation.
Overall, this particular love story was not my type. Fans of Dear John will likely love it, while fans of classics such as The Notebook will probably be disappointed. I won’t go as far to say that it was a waste of 10 dollars, but definitely not the best either.
Katy has been on staff since her sophomore year, starting as a staff writer. With hard work and diligence, she earned a junior editor position and ultimately became Editor-in-Chief her senior year. She will pursue a degree in journalism in college.
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