By Samantha Carter
Round Table Reporter
“I vow to help you love life, to always hold you with tenderness, and to have the patience that love demands. To speak when words are needed, and to share the silence when they’re not. To agree to disagree on red velvet cake, and to live within the warmth of your heart and always call it home.”
This heartwarming film, starring Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams, tells the story of a hipster couple who lives in downtown Chicago. Paige (McAdams) is a sculptor, and Leo (Tatum), the owner of a recording studio. Their free spirits are shown by their ‘pop-up wedding’ at the Art Institute of Chicago, her short, pink wedding dress and by the fact that they both wrote their vows on menus from the place they went to on their first date.
But the true test for their love was yet to come.
A horrific car accident sends Paige through the windshield; all memory of Paige’s life with Leo disappears. When she wakes up in the hospital, Paige assumes that Leo is her doctor not her husband.
Paige ends up humorless, thinking she is back in law school, and worst of all she has no recollection of ever being with Leo.
To complicate the matter, she remembers being engaged to another man: Jeremy (played by Scott Speedman). Jeremy had supported Paige’s law career and was completely in love with her. One thing Paige does remember is her parents and she is comforted by them, deciding they are the best choice to take care of her.
Like any good husband, Leo does not give up hope; he is willing to fight to get his wife back.
The Vow follows the same familiar plot of most romances: love against all odds. It seems everybody fought for Paige: her parents, Leo, Jeremy.
Jeremy, seeing her memory-lapse as a second chance, tries to win Paige back. As Paige starts to give in to Jeremy she also realizes how much Leo misses her, the real her. The sculptor, the free-spirit, the person whom Leo fell in love with.
The Vow will make the audience laugh, cry, and smile, all while making them think about “moments of impact”. Leo reminds viewers to never take moments for granted and cherish every second someone has with a particular person.
While the movie is shown from Leo’s perspective, it makes the viewer wonder how difficult it would be to have no memory of a person, yet be legally married to them.
At one point during the movie Paige finds a video from their wedding and breaks down crying; it seems almost unfathomable to understand the pain of knowing the hardships of having no recollection of loving someone.
The Vow, like The Notebook, Dear John, and many others that fall under the “romantic” category, is a must-see.
