Safe Haven

Safe Haven is a good, girly, HEA (Happily Ever After) film. It’s another in a long line-up of film adaptations of the best-selling novels from renowned romance writer, Nicholas Sparks (The Lucky One, Dear John and The Notebook to name but a few) and if you like to drink up your romantic stories with an added twist of thriller, then this could be perfect for you.

Blooded kitchen knife in hand, a terrified young woman (Julianne Hough) races down the street to a nearby house, where a grey haired woman quickly lets her inside - clearly seeking safety from a traumatic situation. Appearance disguised, she manages to give a Boston cop the slip and boards a bus headed for Atlanta. Has she murdered someone? What has happened that she needed to escape the city before being caught?

Arriving in the small picturesque town of Southport in North Carolina and calling herself Kate, she lands herself a home, a job, a friendly neighbour (Cobie Smulders) AND a handsome love interest - father-of-two, widower, Alex (Josh Duhamel). On the outside Kate has managed to start afresh, but inside she knows her haunting secret may catch up with her at anytime to destroy everything – and when there’s an obsessed Boston cop (David Lyons) hell-bent on tracking her down, who knows when this will be?

With director, Lasse Hallström (Salmon Fishing in The Yemen, Dear John) at the helm, he works his usual magic to bring Sparks’ story to life - beautifully shot scenery and drawing strong performances out of his cast. Bar a well-written script, for any film in this genre to work, strong chemistry between the lead actor and actress is vital. Luckily, Hough and Duhamel have this in bucket loads.

I watched Safe Haven whilst laid-up sick on the sofa, and I have to say, it most certainly perked me up. Twice. My only gripe is that, sadly, the alternative ending on the DVD’s ‘Special Features’ didn’t have me shacking up with an equally, genetically blessed hunk like Josh Duhamel – but you can’t have everything now can you? Or can you? I live in hope.

Safe Haven is available on Blu-ray, DVD and to download on 8 July.