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Inspiring Story, ‘The Vow’ Script Fails For Rachel McAdams, Channing Tatus
By Maggie Scott
On a dark and snowy Chicago street, a dump truck rear-ends a car containing the snuggling Leo (Channing Tatum) and Paige (Rachel McAdams), spinning the auto into a pole and hurtling Paige through the windshield. Although her battered body eventually reclaims its normal functions, Paige’s traumatically injured brain refuses to “wake up” its memories of the last four years as a happily-married wife and on-the-rise artist.
Director Michael Sucsy’s romantic drama The Vow is “inspired by” the unique love-lost/love-found journey taken by Kim and Krickitt Carpenter, as recounted in their autobiography. It must have seemed a no-brainer to pitch the idea of turning their inspiring story into a can’t-miss movie.
Sadly, somewhere in the transition from the tragedy and triumph of the people who lived it, to the triteness and treacle of the actors facing insurmountable odds to convey that tragedy and triumph, a profound experience was lost in translation. With a more competently crafted script than writers Jason Katims and Abby Kohn jinx her with here, McAdams can give a wow performance. But, their adaptation is so stunted and Sucsy’s direction is so devoid of nuance, that McAdams is stuck with three modes of expression: gushing grins (the most incessant mode), puzzled pouts and crocodile teary-eyes.
Poor Tatum, on the other hand, can’t even catch that much of a break. All Sucsy seems to have demanded of him is to project a stoic burliness; without appearing to care that Tatum’s dialogue seldom varies from a lock-jawed delivery for a distinctly unappealing effect. Result: He fails to project anything convincingly resembling passion, or fear, or love or charm.
As a man determined to inspire love in a woman who can’t remember she once loved him, this failure by Tatum turns high hopes in viewers for a romantic tear-jerker into a very glum experience, indeed. Moving from Tatum’s failure to McAdams’—it becomes painfully obvious that her performance will do little to differentiate the “before Leo” from the “with Leo” Paige.
Before Leo, she’s unsuccessfully pursuing a law degree and dealing with an inadequate boyfriend (Scott Speedman). Fleeing law, boyfriend and parents (Sam Neill, Jessica Lange) who have failed her in some mysterious way, Paige becomes an Art Institute student, a waitress and a city-dweller with her own studio.
Marriage (in a museum gallery) to Leo after a whirlwind courtship (complete with “Move In?” spelled out with blueberries) soon follows; and “with Leo” life appears idyllic (in montage) and moving towards planned parenthood, when the accident occurs. It turns back Paige’s mental clock to the days she ate meat and would upset mommy and daddy if she got a tattoo or voted Democrat.
Eventually, after much frustration, Leo stops trying to force love: What if he simply quits pushing so hard and lets nature take its course? It doesn’t make for the most convincing turnaround on film, but there is still enough of a spark of interest left for us to feel a bit of a tug at our hearts. Narrative dullness gets the occasional jolt of male nudity (Tatum’s sculpted posterior) and feminine dainties (Paige and Leo strip down for a dip in Lake Michigan). Rating: PG-13.
