In general, the films I tend to go for are 'the really good ones'. I like a good story line, with strong characters and that special something that makes me leave the cinema thinking 'I definitely just watched a good film'.
I have never been a fan of really, really cheesey films with a predictable storyline, but I do have a few exceptions, and one thing I can't resist is one of those soppy love stories. You know the ones like The Notebook, Dear John and Titanic. Mostly just Nicholas Sparks novels-turned-movies. They don't have a particularly deep plot, and are mostly just boy-meets-girl kind of stories, nothing to serious...
The film is about a married couple, Leo (Tatum) and Paige (McAdams) who are involved in a car accident which results in Paige's memory loss through which she fails to remember the last few years of her life, including the part of her life she shared with her husband.
With his wife not knowing who he is, Leo attempts to reconnect with his wife and make her fall in love with him all over again, at the same time trying to help her remember her life with him.
As far as the storyline goes, I didn't think it was that complex, if anything it was very simple. However, director Michael Sucsy really played on the emotions of the couple and their relationship rather than the cliché 'journey of the couple finally getting back to their old selves and falling in love all over again'.The story definitely played on the idea that one small event, or 'moments of impact' as narrated by Leo, really has the power to change your life completely and unexpectedly.
As much as I was expecting a completely cheesey Rom-Com type movie, and in places it almost reached this point, what I actually got was a movie that was very touching and thought-provoking.
Of course, we were always going to get the oh-so-predictable 'oops-you-walked-in-on-me-naked' type scenes, but I genuinely thought they added a light touch to a movie that is actually, quite depressing.
Channing Tatum, I thought, was fantastic. It wasn't completely different from that character he always seems to play (the tough guy with the cheesey grin and the kind heart), but he somehow managed to put so much more emotion into this role without overplaying it. It must be so difficult to play a guy who's wife has no idea who he is...
Tatum portrays Leo as, not a man suffering from unrequited love, but a man who honestly has no idea what to do with the situation that has been thrown at him. He loves his wife and seems to have such trouble understanding how isn't the same person she was, but also has no idea how to bring her back. You can really see how Leo is trying to stay calm and patient for his wife, but slowly losing hope for her, and it definitely made me feel for him.
Similarly, Rachel McAdams does an amazing job of playing wife Paige. It really can't be easy to play the role of a person whose accident has resulted in such unusual consequences. It would not have been good enough for her to just act like she didn't know her husband and have no connection with him what-so-ever. We have to take into account that, yes she has lost her memory, but she also has this man in her life that tells her that he's her husband and so she must be thinking 'well I must love him if I married him', and I really do think McAdams has taken this into account whilst playing Paige. You can see throughout most of the film that Paige doesn't just look at her husband and think 'who the hell are you?'... instead she sees a man that she is supposed to know and love, but doesn't know how to get that back. She is just as frustrated as Leo and doesn't want to hurt him, and I think that that is what makes her character more relatable in such a rare situation. (I used the word rare since it is noted in the end credits that the movie was based on true events).
OK so, I did go in to the movie expecting something very cheesey, and there was not as much cheesey as i had hoped for, but I wasn't dissatisfied. Without giving anything away, I was extremely please with how to story played out - in a way that i completely didn't expect.
If there a negative I could give this movie it would be that I would have liked a little bit less emphasis on Leo's emotions and a little more on Paige. I guess the story is partly told from Leo's point of view, but I would have like to have seen more of Paige on her own, or even Paige and Leo together, just the tow of them. Perhaps that's the romantic in me talking... who knows.
I wouldn't give this movie five stars, but only because compared to every other movie in the world, it doesn't exceed them all in terms of screenplay or originality, but I will give it four stars because the soppy-romantic in me really enjoyed it and I recommend it to anyone that likes that kind of movie :).
Until we blog again,
x
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