THE VOW

Forget Me Not

Directed by Michael Sucsy
Starring Channing Tatum, Rachel McAdams, Sam Neill

A romantic drama released near Valentine’s Day generally means that audiences are in for some seriously mushy stuff. Add to this a storyline which is kind of like 50 First Dates - but without the laughs - and you’ll have a movie that thousands upon thousands of unsuspecting boyfriends will be dragged along to see.

The story is romantic goop of the best kind; Leo (Channing Tatum) and Paige (Rachel McAdams) are a happily newlywed couple of bohemian Chicagoans, who have an idyllic lifestyle together. Their ridiculously cutesy lifestyle (told in flashbacks) is enough to make any partner feel inadequate - there’s ‘move in’ spelled out in blueberries on a stack of pancakes, first dates to Cafe Mnemonic (which means, I kid you not, ‘any learning technique to help aid memory’), and a renegade wedding in an art museum. However, this all falls to pieces when the couple is involved in a car accident that leaves Paige with a case of severe memory loss, meaning she can’t remember the last five years of her life.

Instead of the bohemian, vegetarian, art student and happily married lady he remembers, Leo suddenly has a wife who not only doesn’t recognise him and still thinks that she’s a law student, living back with her estranged parents (Sam Neill and Jessica Lange), and in love with her ex-fiance, Jeremy (Scott Speedman).

What follows is incredibly frustrating for the viewer. Frustrating, because Leo does some spectacularly dumb things, like throwing a surprise party for Paige the night that she gets back from hospital. Frustrating, because he acts like her memory really could come back in a day or two. Frustrating, because you actually want Paige’s memory to come back and for her to stop acting like a blueberry martini-drinking, preppy, shrieking sorority girl.

Adding to the annoyance is the fact that the rest of the cast are woefully one-dimensional. Paige and Leo’s group of best friends, in particular, are never properly introduced, and their stories are never developed. They could be played by any old hipster dredged up from the local coffee shop. Although Paige’s family have a slightly more interesting storyline, the characters aren’t given enough depth so that we actually feel anything when their various plot twists are revealed. Even the fact that former Packed To The Rafters star Jessica McNamee scored a role as Paige’s sister doesn’t incite any interest (except, perhaps, wishing she had held out for a more interesting film to appear in).

And then it comes back to the leads themselves. It seems McAdams has a shtick for playing ‘damsel in distress’ leading roles in romantic dramas, and although she’s a likable actress, in this movie she just falls flat. That could be due to the fact that Channing Tatum has about as much personality as a cardboard box and only really shows any signs of ‘acting’ in scenes that require him to be shirtless. But, to be fair, it could be the only movie where the lead actors having no chemistry together actually works with the story; watching them try to pick up the pieces of their relationship really does feel like watching two strangers trying to interact with each other.

_TARA LLOYD