682 since 7 pm last night
SAFE HAVEN
Film review by Joe Viglione
On December 27, 2015 ION Television aired this 2013 film
which, though a successful theatrical release, looks more like made for
television. The pairing of male model /
film star Josh Duhamel with Julianne Alexandra Hough (she
appeared uncredited in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone,) has chemistry and
the story actually holds your attention, though you’ve been here before. Take your pick, Sleeping with the Enemy or
Farrah Fawcett’s critically acclaimed 1984 romp, The Burning Bed, it is your
familiar battered wife escaping the husband and seeking anonymity film which
tugs at the heart strings, but – and this is what surprised me – looks more
like one of the Christmas “chick flick” films (it’s not a Christmas movie; just
has the same feel and vibe) aired on Ion television than a major theatrical
release.
The 116 minute film, distributed by Relativity
Media, did twenty-six and a quarter million internationally and 71,349,120.00
domestically, which I find stunning. Swedish director Lars Sven
"Lasse" Hallström also put together The Cider House
Rules, Channing Tatum’s Dear John and all but 7 of the Abba videos. Think about
it, the director was behind the majority of all the videos filmed by superstar
group Abba.
When Erin Tierney leaves Boston and her drunk, abusive
Boston-based cop/detective husband, she becomes Katie Feldman and seeks asylum,
if you will, in Southport, North
Carolina. The deranged hubby, Kevin
Tierney (disgraced Medford detective Stephen LeBert on steroids, played by Australian actor David Lyons) engaged in something “beyond
obsession,” to quote Mrs. Doubtfire spying on Pierce Brosnan and Sally Field in
that classic, and he starts badgering Erin/Katie’s parents and sending out a
false nationwide APB saying that Erin Tierney is wanted for questioning about a
“murder,” which, of course, never happened.
There are so many avenues where this film could have gone
but doesn’t. Still, it generated close
to one hundred million dollars on a budget less than a third of that amount,
and with decent acting and visuals, it resonated with audiences while
simultaneously getting panned by some critics, if you are to believe
Wikipedia.
Somehow, if they could
resurrect Kevin Tierney, or find that he had an equally obsessive twin brother,
a sequel that is superior to Safe Haven could put a new emphasis on it. We, as film scholars, obsess over these
things the way that Detective Kevin Tierney obsessed over his wife, Erin, after
he beat the living daylights out of her.
Interesting television watching, just too bad Director Hallström didn’t find a way to stick an ABBA video or
two in the movie for the patrons of the variety store to watch. Hallström also directed ABBA: the Movie. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABBA:_The_Movie
