THE VOW
US, 2012, 105 minutes, Colour.
Channing Tatum, Rachel Mc Adams, Sam Neill, Jessica Lange.
Directed by Michael Sucsy.
If you are, as they say, ‘a sucker’ for romantic films, then this is definitely your film. And, even if you are not a sucker, you may well be drawn into it. It is about love and fidelity, and a surprising part of ‘the for better or for worse’.
The film opens cheerily, Paige and Leo love each other – and then, almost immediately, there is a car accident and everything changes. Paige suffers severe brain damage and loses her immediate memory. She does not recognise her husband which, while devastating for him, draws out the best in him as he tries to help his wife to regain her memory. Instead, she has regressed to a period when she did not know Leo, was at home with her wealthy, dominating parents, was studying law and was engaged to Jeremy.
While Leo is dismayed by her ‘regression’ to her former self, he tries his best (not always successfully) to help Paige, hoping that, if she does not regain her memory, she will fall in love with him again. Everybody is sympathetic to Paige, while Leo does not receive all the empathy he needs.
The film is announced as based on true events. We are invited to enter into this difficult emotional situation and share Paige’s quest to find her identity and Leo’s hope against hope.
The setting is Chicago and the film makes the most of its atmosphere.
Channing Tatum (who despite his credentials as a model seems in his other films more often a big lug) is convincing as Leo with his love for Paige. We feel deeply sorry for him. Rachel Mc Adams is Paige, always a vivacious screen presence, convinces us in the early sequences of her love for Leo and is equally convincing in her memory loss and how she handles it. Her parents are played by Sam Neill and Jessica Lange.
In days when relationships are so often casual or transient or both, it is an encouragement to see a story of committed love trying to overcome all obstacles.
The ending is not quite what we might have expected.
A blend of the romantic and tragic? Based on actual events? The aftermath?
1. The Chicago settings, the neighbourhoods, Lake Forest and its wealth, the homes, the studios, the recording studio, art school, restaurants, the open-air wedding? The credibility of the characters and plot? The introduction to Leo and Paige? Together, in love, joking, the sudden impact of the crash? Hospital, Leo not being injured, Paige’s injuries, in a coma? The doctors, their prospects? This happening early in the film – and providing credibility of love for the loss of memory that was to happen?
2. The previous years, Leo and Paige meeting, the driver’s licence, going for coffee, the mutual attraction, love, Leo and his work, his friends? Paige and her art? Her preparing the sculptures, the commission? The celebration of the commitment, the wording of the vow, serious, the comic touches? The friends and being chased from the precinct? The prospect for a happy marriage?
3. Paige waking, not knowing who Leo was, mistaking him for the doctor? People’s fears? Her experience, bewilderment? The effect on Leo, not being recognised?
4. Paige’s parents, possessive, not giving due regard to Leo, wanting to take Paige home, her memory up to the time that she left home? The issue of treatment? Leo and his suggesting that she go home, her memory being restored by being in familiar circumstances? Paige going with Leo? Her getting lost, ringing her mother? The invitation to dinner? The tensions? Leo seeming out of place? The father and his superiority? Going to the wedding practice, the father-in-law discussion, at the wedding, with Paige’s mother? The truth about the two and their relationship, the effect on Paige – and why she left home in the first place?
5. Paige, her experiences with Leo, he hoping her memory would be jogged, the apartment, Leo naked, the food, going out, the party, the friends and the gathering, it being too much for her? Wandering and getting lost? With her mother? Her reverting to being a law student, engaged to Jeremy, visiting his office, the kiss? Her sister getting married? With her old school friends and acting girlishly? Her apologies to Leo? Trying to sculpt? Leo and trying the tickling effect – and it not working?
6. Leo, his love for Paige, his continuing his work, the effect of her coma, it being hard, being absent from work, his assistant and her complaint? Trying to make the details jog the memory? His relationship with Paige’s parents, the tensions, the father trying to buy him off? The friends, the recording studio, his inability to do his work, wanting to be present for Paige? The wedding, talking to the groom – and Paige’s sister’s appreciation of Leo’s charm and wisdom?
7. The decision to have a date, retracing the steps, where they met, the restaurant? No effect?
8. The pressure for a divorce, Leo giving up for Paige’s sake?
9. Jeremy, the past, his relationship with Rose, breaking it, Paige’s visit to the office, his hopes, the punch-out at the wedding, beginning again?
10. Paige’s friend, her sister, the outing, meeting Gwen, discovering that her father had an affair with her best friend, her mother’s reaction? Accosting her mother in the garden, her mother explaining her choices and deciding to stay?
11. Paige leaving home again, the same situations precipitating her departure? Her new life, painting? Visiting Leo and telling him?
12. The two together, her falling in love with him again, eventually? The effect for Leo, his shock? For herself?
13. The information at the end of the film, Paige never discovering the lost years or regaining her memory? Working on her identity again? A happy family? The success of the film on its release – especially for women’s audiences?
