Screen Gems, Spyglass Entertainment,
Rachel McAdams, Channing Tatum, Sam Neill, Scott Speedman, Jessica Lange, Sarah Carter, Dillon Casey, Jeananne Goossen, Rachel Skarsten, Kristina Pesic
Paige (Rachel McAdams) and Leo (Channing Tatum) are husband and wife who are marvelously in love with each other for the last four years. Paige is an artist, her dream, and Leo is living his dream, running a recording studio in Chicago. They are very happy, when suddenly Paige is seriously injured in a traffic accident. After being in a medically induced coma, Paige wakes up to find there is a four year hole in her memory. She has no recollection of Leo, their life together, or anything that happened since she left home four years before. Leo is left with a wife that doesn’t remember him, and she is ready to jump back four years to the life she had before. What future is there for a relationship where one party doesn’t even recognize the other?
Yes, this is a Valentines Day tear-jerking chick flick most of all. It’s timed perfectly, and did a huge box office volume it’s first weekend. However, it’s not as simple minded as you might think. Comparisons to “The Notebook” are inevitable, but it’s not the same movie, by any means. First of all, it’s based on a true story. One of those “true story” kinds of films where they show you the real Paige and Leo at closing trailers. This is good news and bad news though. Parts of the story, in real life are not as shocking as they would have been had a Hollywood screenwriter taken a crack at it. There is a family crisis that happened after the point in time where Paige’s memory lapsed, so she had no memory of what caused her to change her whole life which made it possible for her to have met Leo in the first place. They could have come up with a pretty awesome crisis were it fiction, but it real life, Paige had just grown past the point where her parents were, and found out she wanted something different in life. In real life, the crisis is not quite so earth shattering. But the best part of the story is how real it is. Knowing it really happened, and what the eventual true story was, shows that it was an amazing story. How the brain works is a mystery to all of us!
The story is very touching, and Rachel McAdams was awesome. Channing Tatum, I guess is doing the best he can. I don’t totally get him in this role, but I guess the young ladies (and gay guys) are in awe of him. To me, he’s a little too much a cross between Adam Sandler and Jason Segel, and not exactly right, but he did his best, and it’s probably my problem, not his. The parents are ok, Sam McNeil and Jessica Lange. They don’t have a lot to do, and the play the same evil parents we’ve seen before. But the star here is the story itself, and Rachel is certainly outstanding and very convincing in making us believe she has really lost her memory. If you’re a guy, suck it up, and take your girl to this movie. Be ready to wipe a tear or two, so nobody will notice you, and there is enough of a break at the end to compose yourself before the credits are through.
Excellent Valentine’s Day Date Night movie! It’s worth the money it’s going to rake in.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
