Nicholas Sparks has done it again with another tear-jerking love story in the Valentine’s Day blockbuster lineup with, “Safe Haven.” This movie followed the continuing Sparks pattern of finding love and having some form of heartbreak or loss. Director, Lasse Hasström, from the movies “Dear John,” “Salmon Fishing In The Yemen,” and “Chocolat,” took the script to “Safe Haven” and incorporated many thrilling aspects that viewers would not expect to see from a Sparks movie.
When the first scene began, we see a young woman running out of a house, with blood all over her body. This young woman with a dark past named, Katie, Julianne Hough, ran away from Boston to start over and ended up in the beautiful Southport, NC. Katie comes face to face with Alex, Josh Duhamel, a widower with two adorable children. Alex slowly gained Katie’s trust, which allowed her to let her guard down. Another character that Katie became friends with is her curious neighbor, Jo, Cobie Smulders.
While Katie and Alex’s relationship got stronger, her past ended up catching up to her because of the psychopathic cop, David Lyons, who tried to hunt her down. Through Katie’s flashbacks, the audience were able to put all the pieces together as to what really happened to her and they realized that she is not a damsel in distress, but a woman that had many trials in her life.
Hasström engaged the audiences’ attention to the unforced chemistry that Hough and Duhamel have that makes you want to root for them. People who haven’t read the book will be surprised on the many twists that the plot throws at them that are unlike the average romantic movies. Safe Haven is not just a love story. It has scenes that will make people laugh, cry, and bite your nails, because viewers are extremely nervous from the suspense. In the end the film fully lived up to the moviegoers expectations.
