Reviews & Ratings for
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27 out of 35 people found the following review useful:
Missing too many parts that are crucial to the storyline, 16 February 2013

Author: kasia-cimeries44 from poland

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Where to start?... I went to see that movie with uneasy feeling that I'm going to be disappointed and I was unfortunately right. For somebody who didn't read a book it is going to be another love story with a little thriller in it, for me it was a BAD adaptation of very excellent book. I actually knew from the beginning that movies rarely are better than book but some of them at least focus on a important details that are crucial for the storyline. This time like I suspected they missed the most important parts and replaced it with some cheap lovey dovey "I love you" moments. The escape part was showed fast and without pretty much explanation. OK. So we see husband that had too much to drink fighting with his wife, hits her couple of times, throws her on the floor than she grabs the knife and stabs him, after that she runs over to her neighbor and next thing we see is her buying a ticket and getting on the bus and leaving. The same time we can see her husband looking for her, stopping buses running like nothing had happened to him. No stab wounds. Nothing. The book was so much more intense. She was actually planning to escape for almost a year. Stealing money form his wallet, planning everything step by step. It was slow and nerve wracking process that made a reader chew his/her nails. In the movie everything happens so fast you don't even know when it started and when it ended. Also Katie's husband character wasn't showed like I would like it to be presented. He was psychopath, not only an alcoholic. His obsession with Bible and Bible's rules was a crucial point of that story. She didn't run away from abusive alcoholic husband, she run away from sick person. They didn't show it in the movie. They didn't show how twisted his mind was. I think sometimes, that he was the most important character in that story. David Lyons was a perfect for that role, I wish I could see more of his character on the screen that's all. Katie in a movie (payed by Hough) didn't convince me at all. She was looking healthy and pretty like she just came back from vacation, not run away from the hell. Katie in a book was scared, skinny, bitten up and tired. The process of her getting to know Alex was long. She didn't trust anyone for a long time. Josh Duhamel was a good choice in my opinion for Alex's character. He was good looking but not too good looking, he was very easy going, and acted very natural around the kids. But yet as a star of the movie his character was covering more important parts. It was just too much of him in some moments. The other thing they fail to do is to build up Jo character a little bit more. She was Katie's only friend there and they hang out together more often that they show in the movie. The very important conversation between two of them was missing in the movie and I felt like there was unfinished business out there. The turning point was oversimplified. Tierney finally found Katie and asked her to come home with him, when she declined he decided to burn the house down. In the book that process was slow and complex. From the very first time he sees them together to the last moment of his life, reader doesn't know what is going to happen. Why he decided to burn the place down with Katie in it?? Because bible says that when she cheats she will burn in internal flame. That was the reason why he started the fire in the first place. Alex again became a hero saving his daughter from the fire. In the book he didn't show up until everything was pretty much over. It was Katie who fought with Kevin and it was her who saved the kids. I give the movie 3+. If you didn't read the book it's going to be another love story out there. Nothing more, nothing less.

ps. Please excuse my English. I'm from Europe and this is not my native language.

18 out of 24 people found the following review useful:
good entertainment, but certainly a chick flick, 18 February 2013

Author: portsea from Australia

I took my girlfriend to see this, mostly as she cant miss a love story film.... she wasn't disappointed with this. She loved every minute of it. As a male, I thought it was a bit wet, but still enjoyed it. Hough was an easy actress to watch, not only pretty, but accomplished at her art. This was seemingly written for her girlish look and persona. The scenery and cinematography were nothing short of amazing... Locations were perfect, id live there in a heartbeat.... Duhamal was frankly excellent in this role too, he played his part perfectly, and was the perfect choice for this film.

The script was given a twist, and I sat through most of the film not quiet sure what was going to happen next, it definitely kept me intrigued, although I found it a little slow at a few points, i still walked away liking the film as a whole.

Definitely worth going to see, certainly on the big screen, as the locations were amazing....

7 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
nice, 11 March 2013
Author: nikiconsiglio from Canada

I took my girlfriend to see this, mostly as she cant miss a love story film.... she wasn't disappointed with this. She loved every minute of it. As a male, I thought it was a bit wet, but still enjoyed it. Hough was an easy actress to watch, not only pretty, but accomplished at her art. This was seemingly written for her girlish look and persona. The scenery and cinematography were nothing short of amazing... Locations were perfect, id live there in a heartbeat.... Duhamal was frankly excellent in this role too, he played his part perfectly, and was the perfect choice for this film.

The script was given a twist, and I sat through most of the film not quiet sure what was going to happen next, it definitely kept me intrigued, although I found it a little slow at a few points, i still walked away liking the film as a whole.

Definitely worth going to see, certainly on the big screen, as the locations were amazing....

12 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
A Love That Stands The Test of Time!, 15 February 2013

Author: HollywoodJunket from Hollywood

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

As human nature would have it, it's not a rare thing to fall in and out of love a number of times in one person's lifetime. But, then, there are those even more rare cases of finding the one true love that may occur only once in a person's life and lasting even longer than a lifetime. Relativity Media's "Safe Haven", directed by Lasse Hallstrom is a story about one of those such rare cases.

Based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks, the story opens with a young woman, who simply goes by "Katie", played by Julianne Hough, as she is seen fiercely escaping danger. It's not yet revealed what the circumstances are. She resurfaces in the small, ocean side tourist town of Southport in North Carolina, which is also where the film was shot.

Her small town surroundings and the people within it embrace Katie a lot sooner than she is ready to reciprocate. One such resident being Alex (Josh Duhamel) who is a father of two and a widower of four years loosing his wife to cancer. A very guarded Katie is constantly reminded of her runaway status from, as more of her back-story is revealed, her husband who is a Boston police detective (David Lyons) in charge of locating escaped criminals.

With a small window of opportunity to get to know Alex and his family more, Katie decides to enter their lives as his kids start to grow more fond of her. However, when her husband's detective skills lead him directly to her, a series of events results in a new awakening for Katie and Alex's family alike where new beginnings are a welcome.

The last fifteen minutes of "Safe Haven" includes a real tear-jerker and a surprise ending is revealed. I challenge anyone to have a dry eye after that. Josh Duhamel as "Alex" and Julianne Hough as "Katie" were a perfect fit and carried the storyline perfectly.

Also very impressive performances came from child actors Noah Lomaz as "Josh", Alex's son, and Mimi Kirland as "Lexie", Alex's daughter...Full Review at HollywoodJunket.com -Hollywood Junket

27 out of 47 people found the following review useful:
the ending will blow your mind...good movie but not that well romantic thanks to Lasse Hallström, 14 February 2013

Author: Abed Naddaf (tristaover)

if you are looking for a love movie then you had made the right choice this movie is a simple story yet good story lining not as well as your expectations but you will love it. if your hoping for a second notebook you have to know its not that good...

okay maybe Julianne Hough is not the right actress to be in this role but she did her best and you may like her innocence in her role but i didn't like her so much...

Directed by Lasse Hallström, the movie will teach us that in the darkest hour, love is the only light that shines there in… the dark…or something like that. An affirming and suspenseful story about a young woman's struggle to love again description will work out just fine...

i don't want to talk so much about the movie go watch it what are you waiting for and maybe you will use some tissues so go for it and have a good time...

its my first review and I'm not good as well in English hope it helps tank you for reading...

12 out of 19 people found the following review useful:
There's no safe haven from Nicholas Sparks, 22 February 2013

Author: gregeichelberger from San Diego

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

There are mass murderers and former dictators rotting away in prison cells who have done better for the human condition than author, Nicholas Sparks. If Nicholas Sparks was a conflict he would be the Hundred Years War; if he were a baseball team he would be the 1962 New York Mets; if he were a boxer he'd be Jerry Quarry.

Since 2004's "The Notebook," which at least earned praise for the inclusion of veteran stars James Garner and Gena Rowlands, but catcalls for Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams (at least Gosling has become a better actor since), Sparks has become the antithesis to romantic dramas and to good film, in general.

Follow-ups such as "Dear John," "The Last Song" and "The Lucky One," have all gotten progressively (or even exponentially) worse. That pattern continues with his latest Valentine's Day release, "Safe Haven," which is nothing more than "Sleeping with the Enemy" meets "The Lucky One." In fact, during this picture I quietly prayed for Zac Efron to appear and make everything better again.

Directed by Lasse Hallström (the man behind such quality productions as "My Life as a Dog," "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" and "The Cider House Rules"), this picture has a woman on the run trying to hide her identity but stumbles upon love in an unbelievably bucolic North Carolina fishing village.

Katie ("Rock of Ages" Julianne Hough, as in "hough" did she get up on the big screen? Answer, she's living with Ryan Seacrest — talk about sleeping one's way to the bottom) flees a murder rap in Boston in a bus and is trying to avoid a psycho police office (David Lyons, "Eat Pray Love").

Conveniently, she settles in South Point where few people speak, with the exception of general store owner Alex (Josh Duhamel, "Transformers" franchise), a widower with a cute, ready-made Hollywood family (including the robotic kid actor who was so bad in "Playing for Keeps").

He is smitten, but she's a cold fish (remember, she has "secrets" that WE know about, but Alex does not). He makes small talk, she ignores it, he gives her a bicycle, she cannot accept it, etc., etc., etc. But of course, since this is a Nicholas Sparks' adaptation, you know love — and a certain amount of lust — is just lurking around the corner.

Soon, she discovers what a wonderful, caring, handsome man he is — and he loves children, to boot. Alex is, after all, a '90s woman. In the third act, though, we know a certain cop will show up to add what little drama his arrival can add to a film like this and it takes a plot twist from the planet Pluto to save the day.

It has been said that Sparks (who now boasts his own production company, so the "fun" will continue for years to come) has trouble writing men, but can certainly capture women. After "Safe Haven," I can honestly say he cannot write ANYONE.

His latest effort is schmaltzy, predictable, clichéd to the point of absurdity, and has no chemistry whatsoever between his good-looking leads. In fact, now that I think about it, "Safe Haven" actually is the perfect Valentine's Day date movie — provided, of course, that you and your date avoid it at all costs.

5 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Another failed Sparks adaptation, 10 May 2013

Author: estebangonzalez10 from Ecuador

¨There's no safer place for you than here with me.¨

Chicks will definitely love this film, but I found it to be yet another recycled Nicholas Sparks adaptation. Sparks may have a fan base through his novels and movie adaptations, but if he continues to write the same movie over and over again he will eventually lose them all. I was a fan of The Notebook because the relationship felt authentic and Sparks writing was new to me, I really liked it, but Safe Haven is completely flawed. Not only is it full of romantic clichés (we get to see another canoeing scene in a lake interrupted by rain like in The Notebook), but it has some of the worst plot twists I've seen in film history. I guess it was an attempt from Sparks to make this film different from the rest, but the suspense and thrills never worked. It felt like The Stepfather with the melodrama from any chick flick you've seen. It's too bad Safe Haven didn't work because I like Swedish director, Lasse Hallstrom, who has made Chocolat, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, The Cider House Rules, and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. This is one film that he would probably want to erase from his resume. The writers in charge of adapting Sparks' novel were Dana Stevens (City of Angels and For Love of the Game) and Gage Lansky. The script was weak, predictable, and extremely mushy. The film also suffers from a weak lead performance from Julianne Hough who was much better in the musicals she starred in: Burlesque and Rock of Ages. Her performance never felt believable and that hurt the chemistry with her co-star Josh Duhamel, who has also made a living off rom-coms like When in Rome, or Life as We Know It. Those mediocre movies look like masterpieces when compared to Safe Haven. Duhamel is a likable actor, but Hough's performance made it difficult to tolerate this film.

The movie begins with a young scared girl named Katie (Julianne Hough) making a frenetic escape from her hometown in Boston to a small North Carolina town known as Southport. She's running from something, but we are never shown exactly what happened. All we know is that something happened in her home involving a knife and a man, and now she has cut her hair and died it blonde and has escaped to this isolated place. Police officer, Tierney (David Lyons), tries to hunt her down but gets to the bus station a few seconds late. Katie decides that Southport is the perfect place to start over and finds a nice little cabin in the woods and a job at a local coffee shop. Katie tries to keep to herself, but she forms a nice bond with a little girl named Lexie (Mimi Kirkland) who is the daughter of widowed Alex (Josh Duhamel). Alex soon falls for Katie's good looks and they grow closer together. However Katie never mentions anything about her past. Katie also befriends her neighbor, Jo (Cobie Smulders), who seems to always be there for her for good advice. As Katie begins to fall for Alex more and more, she is still haunted by her past and isn't sure what her next move should be. Thus the melodrama begins.

Safe Haven had some beautiful shots of romantic locations, but it was full of clichés and bad dialogues. At times while the music was playing the film even felt like one long music video or commercial. Safe Haven also suffers from an extensively long plot. At almost two hours I kept waiting for the end to approach, and it never did. One plot twist after another the film continued to grow increasingly tiring and tedious. By the end if you thought the film was entertaining you will be left with a bad taste in your mouth because the final twist is just ridiculous. Yes the film is romantic and sweet and girls will love this movie, but I don't think the male audience will be won over by the suspense and thrills. It didn't work for me, there was just no depth to the characters or the story.

http://estebueno10.blogspot.com/

6 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
A Little Bit Bland, 24 March 2013

Author: rebecca-ry from North Lanarkshire, Scotland

'Safe Haven' is from the same author as romantic classic 'The Notebook.' 'Safe Haven' is not exactly as generic as 'The Notebook' but it does qualify as pretty boring in terms of cinematic exploration.

Despite the story – on paper – seeming fairly interesting and relatively unique to the romantic genre, the film still manages to bore you for the first hour of it. In fact, the last 30 minutes of the film are sadly the most interesting. Before that we have endless conversations that seem pointless and clichéd, naff romantic gestures and unrealistic characters. Domestic abuse is sadly a very real problem for many but this film somehow makes the issue seem very unrealistic and as something so dramatic it could never happen in real life. Beautiful people deal with their problems in a beautiful, idyllic small town very quickly and very easily, it isn't exactly interesting.

The acting was a lot better than I had expected; Julianne Hough was a bit flat in some scenes but her performance wasn't bad – just not memorable. Josh Duhamel gave a fairly good performance; he was not playing a pretty face with zero background like he has done in other films and he managed to show he can act with at least a little depth. David Lyons gave the best performance in the film but unfortunately had the least amount of screen time. Playing the creepy, alcoholic, abusive husband, he made the final act worth watching and was quite scary.

Overall, the film certainly is not a bad film; it just isn't a very interesting or memorable one. It's full of clichés and there are not many emotional, heart-warming scenes so it is a little bit bland.

12 out of 21 people found the following review useful:
Sleeping With The Enema......., 5 March 2013
Author: James Bourke (Canadianbacon1971@hotmail.co.uk) from United Kingdom

So it goes like this, my wife suggested the other day that we might go see a movie of a mutual choice, currently playing in the local cinema is Mama(my kind of movie) Being a fan of Nicholas Sparks's previous adaptations, particularly The Notebook & Nights In Rodanthe, the mutual nature of choosing together went completely out the window as I thought to myself, lets do the date movie thing.

Now apart from the Nicholas Sparks reference I knew nothing about the movie, and granted I prefer to watch horror movies, whodunnits, as I have done all the live long day, I have as I've gotten older broaden my scope when it comes to big screen entertainment.

However there comes a time in a married man's life when you gotta say, whoa nellie! what on earth am I watching here.

Now if ever a movie deserved spoilers to dissuade fellow patrons from parting with their hard earned cash, then this be the movie to spill the beans with, that being said, we should all judge for ourselves and be adult about it.

When my wife put forth the movie as said date movie, I kept calling it No Safe Haven(my mind was thinking about an old Wings Hauser movie) and I nearly asked for two ticket for that movie. As the movie began to unfold, my mind drifted toward the old Patrick Bergin/Julia Roberts rib tickler Sleeping With The Enemy.

Now I said no spoilers, and I will stay true to my promise, but sleeping with the enemy is all I will say, and truthfully that's all that permeated through my mind as the movie played. About half an hour into the movie I begged my wife to set me free, but she gripped my arm with a vice like grip and made me sit with her.

Many thoughts ran through my mind, Josh Duhamel you are better than this. Lasse Halstrom do you ever remember directing My Life As A Dog, good god man you don't need the money that badly and lastly Mr Nicholas Sparks, how dare you! In recent times you have systematically resurrected the romantic drama from it's slumber but with this glossy piece of dreck you are trying to pull the wool over the cinema patron's eye.

Something told me that we were not going to be in the same territory as his previous screen adaptations, and I said as much to the wife, when I exclaimed to her 'Something tells me my love, you are not going to shed a tear at this one' but hey what do I know, I'm a guy(as the character in Say Anything said, the world is full of guys, be a man) well I'm man enough to say, this was not the movie for me, and if you check out what I've reviewed in the past, you might well agree.

That being said, you've been warned, No Safe Haven.....sorry Sleeping With The Enema is instantly forgettable. Even My wife agreed with me and that's not an easy thing for her to do.

2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
We All Need a Safe Haven Sometimes, 21 March 2013

Author: Sean Jump from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

On a dark, rain-swept night, a young woman named Katie flees from her suburban home and into the arms of a generous neighbor. A few hours later, Katie is boarding a bus headed out of town while a police detective scurries to find her before she can make good her escape. He fails, and soon Katie is headed south, on her way to what she hopes will be a new life. But the past is never far behind and secrets have a way of coming out. Is there a safe haven anywhere in the world for Katie?

Adapted from a novel by bestselling writer Nicholas Sparks, SAFE HAVEN is a story of trust, redemption, and of course, love. The script, which is for the most part well-crafted and deserved credit for avoiding a number of the clichés that often taint romantic dramas, does a good job of establishing a credible cast of characters, especially Katie. Julianne Hough plays the role of the runaway woman with sincerity and passion, and her performance keeps the story grounded. Josh Duhamel is also excellent as Josh, a single father with two small children who is struggling to keep his life together in the wake of his beloved wife's death. Josh is clearly attracted to Katie from their first meeting, but Katie is reluctant to return his attentions. There is a good reason for her initial reticence, though like Josh the viewer remains in the dark early on.

The truth is only slowly revealed, much of it in flashbacks from Katie's nightmares, but meanwhile the cop from the opening scene tirelessly works to pick up her trail. David Lyons is great as the crusading detective, consumed by an almost unnatural passion to find Katie and bring her in. He, too, has secrets. Going into more of the plot would be a disservice.

Despite the straightforward nature of the storyline, there are a number of clever twists and it takes a while for all the characters' backstories to play out. Seeing the numerous plot threads unravel at their own pace and savoring the unexpected turns is a big part of what makes SAFE HAVEN more than your usual romance.

SAFE HAVEN is a terrific date movie. It is first and foremost a love story, but the film treats the subject with more respect than your typical teenage drama. The characters are mostly adults and the themes they must wrestle with are serious ones with no easy answers. In the end, the story affirms the value of trust, home, and family, and that those things are worth fighting for even if it means facing up to your worst fear.

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