Safe Haven (2013) Julianne Hough, Josh Duhamel, Cobie Smulders, David Lyons, Red West Movie Review

Safe Haven (2013)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Julianne Hough in Safe Haven (2013)

Running from the Devil

Having fled in the dark of the night on a bus Katie (Julianne Hough) gets of the bus in the small town of Southport, North Carolina where she rents a shack in the woods away from everyone, well everyone except Jo (Cobie Smulders) who says she lives nearby. It is in Southport that she meets widower Alex (Josh Duhamel) and his two children who quickly becomes attracted to the attractive Katie who after some reservations falls for him. But Katie has a secret, the reason why Boston detective Kevin Tierney (David Lyons) is relentlessly hunting her down.

Let me tell you in two words what is so good about "Safe Haven", it's "Julianne Hough" a good actress who just happens to be drop dead gorgeous, so gorgeous that even Cobie Smulders is over shadowed by her attractive nature. Now someone could say I am being sexist but it is extremely clear that Hough has been cast both for her acting skills and her looks because "Safe Haven" is one of those Lasse Hallström movies which are as much about the attractiveness of the visuals as it is about what is going on and so Hough with at times a look similar to a young Doris Day is ideal for this movie.

As for what is going on, well we have mainly a combination of this commercially beautiful love story with a mystery surrounding why Katie is on the run. That means as we watch the romance build between Katie and Alex we slowly learn what happened in the past with it all coming out when Alex inevitably discovers that there are wanted posters up in the police station for Katie, guess the cops in Southport are not the most observant bunch. The thing is that whilst there is action and drama specific to the Nicholas Sparks story, the basics are reminiscent to various other movies such as "Sleeping With the Enemy" and so there is something a little predictable to all this especially if you are a fan of Nicholas Sparks' stories as you just know there has to be drama come the end.

What this all boils down to is that "Safe Haven" is certainly an entertaining movie with lots of beautiful scenes but it isn't anything overly special due to the basic storyline having been done many times before. Although there is one extra twist to all this which for some will make the movie whilst for others it could break it.

Tags: Nicholas Sparks


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