Broken Vows

Charming bad-boy bar tender, Patrick Flynn (Wes Bentley), catches the eye of bashful bride-to-be, Tara (Jaimie Alexander) during her bachelorette trip away from fiancé, Michael (Cam Gigandet). After a steamy one-night stand, Tara wakes up rife with regret and guilt, much to the astonishment of Patrick, who has already taken the liberty of getting her name tattooed on his forearm. Cue rapid escalation of somewhat unbelievable yet entertaining events.

There is an air of familiarity as we are introduced to Wes Bentley's character in this film. Are we watching an unofficial American Beauty sequel where smart-weird-loner Ricky Fitts has grown up to be a little more vexatious and a lot more delusional? Or is there just something about Bentley that makes him too irresistible not to cast as the creepy misfit? Whatever it is, in stark contrast to Wes’ portrayal of Ricky, Patrick's voyeuristic tendencies become increasingly more unhinged and alarming as the plot develops.

We start to empathise with Patrick less and cringe with agony more every time he appears on screen. Due to the lengthy cinematic build-ups and leading dialogue that preambles many of his 'shock' unsolicited appearances in Tara's life, there were few moments that were truly unexpected from an audience perspective (a little disappointing for a film of this nature), however the intensity of Bentley’s performance keeps the viewer engaged beyond the more predictable instances of revelation.

Although the ‘stalker movie’ concept has been done many times before, Broken Vows certainly has some original charm. Amidst sprinklings of unnecessarily cheesy dialogue and over-egged flash-back scenes, Director, Bram Coppens serves up an aesthetically–pleasing cinematic world in which our leads showcase a collection of thrilling and engaging performances.