If you are looking for the quintessential Valentine’s date movie, you might be better off staying in and re-watching “The Notebook,” but if you are willing to pay to see the reality and bittersweet challenges of modern love—not to mention Channing Tatum’s bare ass—go see “The Vow. The movie’s challenges and triumphs will stay with you, even days later.

 

Last Friday, Sony Pictures released “The Vow” in anticipation of packed theaters for Valentine’s Day weekend. Critics and fans of Rachel McAdams (“The Notebook”) and Channing Tatum (“Dear John”) came out hoping for another romantic classic reminiscent of Nicholas Sparks’ (“The Notebook,” “Dear John,” “A Walk to Remember”) work. However, this movie follows the realistic ups and downs of life after a tragedy, rather than the over the top modern fairy tales Sparks creates.

 

Consider the fact that “The Vow” is not a fictitious story. It is based on the real-life events of Kim and Krickitt Carpenter’s life together.

 

The movie adaptation of the Carpenters’ memoir follows Paige (McAdams) and Leo Collins (Tatum), two young artists living and working in Chicago. After a car accident, Paige’s memory of the last four years—including everything about her marriage to Leo—is wiped clean.

 

Uniquely, the story of Paige’s accident and the Collins’ life prior to and after the accident is told from Leo’s point of view. He narrates “moments of impact” that help string the flashbacks of the Collins’ life together with the hardships of Paige’s post-accident life—anecdotes of falling in love, the accident itself, and the choices Paige makes to rediscover who she is.

 

Leo’s narration plays an important part in the film, giving male audience members something to relate to, while providing college-aged females with something to swoon over and hope for in their future husbands.

 

As mentioned above, a story based on reality is not always as perfect as a Nicholas Sparks book. At times, Paige’s mood swings and inability to trust Leo after the accident is annoying at best. Her quirky-artist persona is replaced with a Stepford wife, twin-set-wearing law student with no recollection of her recent life or the choices that led her to Leo. She reunites with her family whom she has not spoken to in five years for a reason she cannot remember. The mystery behind this separation plays an interesting role in the film, as it lets Paige have an entire “do-over” of the last four years.

 

Other audience members found more faults with Leo. After a single first date, he seems resigned to the fact that his wife no longer loves him. However his largest flaw may not be his inability to reunite with his wife, but the fact that he leaves the audience contemplating a universal question: what are you willing to do for love?

 

Despite the harsh realities portrayed in the film, there are also precious moments. Every anecdote Leo recalls of Paige and his former life is straight out of a fairy tale. His love for her post-accident is unprecedented. And of course, any movie with Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum is sure to be touching, romantic and full of eye-candy.

 

If there is any reason to go see the film, it is for the ending. Though you may leave the theater feeling a bit disappointed with the struggles the couple faces—when will Paige remember?—the ending will definitely leave you feeling lighter and better for sitting through something so heart- wrenchingly realistic….

 

Maybe Nicholas Sparks had something to do with the movie after all.