Safe Haven is a movie adaptation from Nicholas Sparks’s novel of the same name. The movie is directed by swedish film director Lasse Hallström. As a fan of his films, I was very excited about this one. He has also directed movies like Dear John, Chocolat and Hachi: A Dog’s Tale. Safe Haven is an American romance film starring Julianne Hough and one of my favorite actors Josh Duhamel. Hallström’s movies seem to never let me down; this one goes straight to the list of my favorite films with all the exciting plot twists, romance and suspense.
Safe Haven tells a story about a young woman who leaves her house after being shown in possession of a bloody knife. The scene leaves an assumption for the viewer that she has murdered someone. She is being wanted by the police. She escapes to a small town called Southport, North Carolina. She introduces herself as Katie and acquires a job as a waitress and buys a small house from the edge of town. Katie becomes friends with her neighbor Jo (Cobie Smulders) and meets Alex Wheatley (Josh Duhamel) who owns a local convenience store. Alex’s wife has died of cancers a few years ago, and he is left alone with his two young children, Lexie and Josh. Alex immediately shows interest towards Katie, and keeps doing small, helpful things for her. They go on a canoeing trip together and soon fall in love after that.
The story goes on like any other romance film, before Alex finds out about the reports saying that Katie is a wanted murderer. Later Katie explains to him that the man he had stabbed with a kitchen knife was his husband and she was only protecting herself from his drunken assault. She also reveals her real name, Erin. Her husband, Kevin, who worked as a police and had made the reports of her being wanted was only an excuse to track her down. This episode is followed by some serious events as Kevin finds Erin’s location and it causes a fire on Alex’s store and his house, destroying them all.
The fact that the viewer sees at the beginning of the movie the scene of Erin with the bloody knife keeps the tension going on all the way. Assuming that Erin’s a murderer, it is a real surprise to find out what the situation really is. I hardly managed to stay on my seat with all the excitement. As things calm down at the end of the movie and you wait for the happy ending, there comes another twist at the very end, which leaves you speechless staring at the ending credits, just thinking like ”what was that all about?!” Keeping up with the movie’s plot twists makes a good time, but an unimaginative denouement turns the whole thing upside down, leaving you with a feeling of incongruity. Safe Haven was universally panned from critics, but from my point of view I think it was refreshing to experience something new and exciting comparing to the usual romance films.