The Vow

This movie disappointed me. I'll explain.
Though it is advertised as the perfect Valentine's Day date movie, I disagree. In this film, Paige (Rachel McAdams) and Leo (Channing Tatum) Collins are the perfect couple, but then a tragic car accident occurs, wiping Paige's memory of the last five years. In her mind, she's still a law student and engaged to this jerk named Jeremy (Scott Speedman), and she's also still on excellent terms with her parents, the Thortons (Sam Neill and Jessica Lange, more on them later). Leo is devastated, as anyone would be, and thus he becomes determined to make her fall in love with him again. But it's not easy, and it appears that Paige doesn't want to remember. She's confused, and doesn't understand the decisions that she made. She still thinks she eats meat, when in reality she's currently a vegatarian.
Leo even asks her on a date and she goes and they have a great time, but that moment of closeness doesn't last. In fact, they completely fall apart, and Paige goes back to her life five years in the past (in law school and dating Jeremy), only to find herself eventually ending up back where she was before the accident (taking art classes and starting to date Leo again), only she's five years older.
That is the plot. On the surface, it looks good, but it was poorly written. Paige's parents are rich, but they hold a devastating secret, and one that they keep from her so things can go back to the way things were before the accident. Her father (Sam Neill) had been having an affair with her (former) best friend, Diane. Her perfect world is shattered. Even Leo, who had never met her parents until after the accident, knew but wanted to earn her love back.
Though there is plenty of chemistry to go around, Paige seems too much like a little girl, crawling back to her parents, abandoning her husband, though she and her sister, Gwen both like him. But yet, things don't seem to be working out. Leo divorces her, after some persuading from Paige's daddy.
The film ends with Paige and Leo going out on a date, leaving too many questions unanswered. Then titles appear saying the couple who inspired this film are currently married with two children, but the wife never recovered her memory.
I wish that they would have recreated the events that actually happened, because that certainly would have made a better film than this. Rachel McAdams is at least decent in her weak role. Channing Tatum isn't awful, though he never seems to be into his role, and his narration is sad and weak when it should be much firmer, but he is a good guy and the hero of the film, and though you feel sorry for him, you should feel sorrier for him. Sam Neill, covered in slim, and Jessica Lange (a two-time Oscar winner) have talent that is completely wasted in this film, and especially for Lange, there is nothing for her to do, anyone could have played that role. As many reviews have been saying, the film leaves you wanting more, and it totally does. You want more everything, you want the actors to feel confident in their roles, in how they say their lines, and you want that happy ending, which is only alluded to. As a result, the film is far from the perfect date movie, in fact it's probably one of the worst date movies, even The Notebook is better and that ends with the two main characters dying together. That's how bad this film is. Grade: C-