Safe Haven (2013)
Average Rating: 4/10
Reviews Counted: 131
Fresh: 17 | Rotten: 114
Schmaltzy, predictable, and melodramatic, Safe Haven also suffers from a ludicrous plot twist, making for a particularly ignominious Nicholas Sparks adaptation.
Average Rating: 4.2/10
Critic Reviews: 33
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 30
Schmaltzy, predictable, and melodramatic, Safe Haven also suffers from a ludicrous plot twist, making for a particularly ignominious Nicholas Sparks adaptation.
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Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 39,573
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Movie Info
An affirming and suspenseful story about a young woman's struggle to love again, Safe Haven is based on the novel from Nicholas Sparks, the best-selling author behind the hit films The Notebook and Dear John. When a mysterious young woman arrives in a small North Carolina town, her reluctance to join the tight knit community raises questions about her past. Slowly, she begins putting down roots, and gains the courage to start a relationship with Alex, a widowed store owner with two young
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Cast
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Josh Duhamel
Alex, Alex Wheatley -
Julianne Hough
Katie, Katie Feldman -
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David Lyons
Kevin Tierney, Tierney -
Noah Lomax
Josh -
Mimi Kirkland
Lexi
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Safe Haven Trailer & Photos
All Critics (131) | Top Critics (33) | Fresh (17) | Rotten (114)
Keeping up with the movie's inane plot twists makes for a capricious good time, but an unimaginative denouement turns the whole thing into a fool's errand.
Top Critic[The] final reel ... descends into the Vortex of Bonkers, delivering fits of unexpected laughter.
Plods along with dialogue just above the level of crayon scribblings, and the direction by the usually reliable Lasse Hallström is dismayingly sluggish.
It's as though the filmmakers lacked the confidence to stick with the basic story, which served every element needed in a Sparks-infused guilty pleasure.
On its own merits, Safe Haven is about as satisfying and filling as a Valentine's Day conversation heart, with far less to say.
The latest Nicholas Sparks-derived weepfest, Safe Haven, is being marketed as a Valentine's Day special, but the plot line is closer to a stalker thriller. It's sudsy-scary. It's also not very good.
Expect to gag early and often, and consider breaking up with anyone who forces you to sit through this.
A bland love story that features a twist that feels more like a dupe.
It's typical comfort food filmmaking and that's exactly what Safe Haven is: a mouthful of cotton candy. Empty, overly sweet, and likely to kill you from diabetes.
I don't know when has the sexy south has ever looked dry.
Safe Haven may be predictable and formulaic, but Hallström gives the proceedings a cosy glow and there are a couple of twists before the end: one blindingly obvious, the other blindingly dumb.
The surprise ending will probably cause you to regurgitate your popcorn.
...my movie-cry meter is more often pushed into the red by war horses and estranged mixed martial arts brothers battling each other in common resentment of an alcoholic Nick Nolte than it is by revelatory love letters. Your mileage will vary.
It's beyond laughable ...
An almost unendurably sentimental tale ...
Nicholas Sparks strikes again with yet another film based on a misty-eyed novel about tormented seaside romance in the romanticised American South.
To this writer, it suggests one of those evasive US TV commercials for incontinence treatments or rheumatism therapies.
Unfortunately Hough is not really up to the part and Duhamel isn't much better than a nice-looking block of wood.
There's a good twist, the young leads are appealing and anyone who enjoys Sparks' sincere storytelling will enjoy it, even though it's overlong.
You can always rely on novelist Nicholas Sparks to bring you a comforting romance between good-looking people.
A cliched romantic thriller by numbers.
This romantic film has a few too many creepy elements in it. Granted, the creepy elements aren't as creepy as those in the popular 'Twilight' series, but they are creepy enough to upset the whole mood of the movie.
As ever with a Sparks story, the action takes place in a sugary vision of small-town America that does not correspond with the real world at any point.
Almost nothing happens for long stretches before a plot "twist" so obvious that only the dull-witted could fail to see it coming.
I like to imagine that Nicholas Sparks realized he couldn't write yet another prequel story about how the people whose photos come with the picture frames fell in love. So he figured he'd try a thriller!
Audience Reviews for Safe Haven
Super Reviewer
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- Katie: I'm so scared!
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- Alex: There's no safer place for you than here with me.
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- Alex: If you're in some kind of trouble we can fix this!
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- Alex: Would you like to go canoeing?
- Jo: I like to go canoeing!
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- Alex: Hey, Katie.
- Katie: What?
- Alex: You forgot your bra.
Discussion Forum
| Topic | Last Post | Replies |
|---|---|---|
| Another film based off a Sparks novel! | 49 days ago | 5 |
Latest News on Safe Haven
February 14, 2013:
Critics Consensus: A Bad Day for A Good Day to Die HardThis week at the movies, we've got the return of John McClane (A Good Day to Die Hard, starring...
February 12, 2013:
Safe Haven Cast and Crew InterviewEverything you wanted to know about the latest Nicholas Sparks adaptation but were afraid to ask.
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Foreign Titles
- Safe Haven - Wie ein Licht in der Nacht (DE)
- Un lugar donde refugiarse (ES)
The good part of the movie is about 15 minutes before the end - finally some drama and scares! The actual end, however, had me reaching for a vomit bucket with that note, and actually I didn't get who the wife was until I read someone else's spoiler. She kind of looked different in the writing scene. So yes, fail.