Safe Haven (film)

Safe Haven

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Lasse Hallström
Produced by Marty Bowen
Chad Freet
Wyck Godfrey
Ryan Kavanaugh
Screenplay by Gage Lansky
Dana Stevens
Based on Safe Haven
by Nicholas Sparks
Starring Julianne Hough
Josh Duhamel
Cobie Smulders
David Lyons
Music by Deborah Lurie[1]
Cinematography Terry Stacey
Edited by Andrew Mondshein
Production
company
Distributed by Relativity Media
Release dates
  • February 14, 2013 (2013-02-14)
Running time
 116 minutes[2]
Country United States
Language English
Budget US$28 million[3]
Box office US$97,594,140[4]

Safe Haven is a 2013 American romantic drama thriller starring Julianne Hough, Josh Duhamel and Cobie Smulders. It was released theatrically in North America on February 14, 2013. The film was directed by Lasse Hallström, and is an adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' 2010 novel of the same name. The film was originally set for a February 8 release, but was moved to February 14, 2013.[5]

Plot

A frightened woman flees her house in Boston, having held a bloody knife. After taking shelter with her neighbor, she is shown moments later at the bus station trying to flee town. She buys a bus ticket with her hair now cropped and bleached and stops in the small town of Southport, North Carolina. At the general store, she introduces herself as Katie. After acquiring a job as a waitress and renting a small house on the edge of town, Katie Feldman (Julianne Hough) befriends her neighbor, Jo (Cobie Smulders) and meets Alex Wheatley (Josh Duhamel), a widowed father of two young children, Josh (Noah Lomax) and Lexie (Mimi Kirkland).

It's not too long before Katie and Alex start a relationship, and she becomes like a mother to Josh and Lexie. Meanwhile, Kevin Tierney (David Lyons), a Boston police detective, prepares wanted posters for a woman named "Erin" which describe that she is wanted for attempted murder. Alex sees Erin's wanted poster in the police station and notices the picture bears a striking resemblance to Katie. He confronts Katie with the information, causing a huge fight. They break up, and Katie moves out of her house.

As Katie is about to leave town, however, Alex intercepts her and says that he has fallen in love with her. Katie returns his love, and decides to stay in Southport. She tells Alex that she fled to Southport to escape her abusive and alcoholic husband. They got in a fight, and she stabbed him in self-defense before she fled south.

The Boston police detective, Kevin, is suspended for creating the wanted posters, whereupon it is revealed that he is Katie's (Erin's) abusive and alcoholic husband. Enraged, he breaks into Katie's former neighbor's home back in Boston and finds the phone number to the Southport restaurant where Katie works. Arriving just in time for the town's Fourth of July parade, a severely intoxicated Kevin sees Katie kissing Alex, which enrages him. That night, Katie has a dream that she is standing on the docks watching the fireworks when Jo comes up and tells Katie that "he" is here. Katie wakes up in the convenience store next to a sleeping Lexie when Kevin suddenly appears and confronts her, demanding that she go back with him. She refuses and tells him to leave. Kevin pulls a gun and pours gasoline all over the store, with the intent to burn it down.

When he hesitates, Katie buys time by faking sympathy for him and agreeing to return home with him. When he lets his guard down, she pushes him into the water; however, a firework spark lands on the gasoline, igniting a fire that engulfs the store. Alex sees the burning store, quickly makes his way across the harbor by boat, and saves Lexie. Meanwhile, Katie tries to fight off Kevin; during the struggle, the gun goes off and kills Kevin, ridding her of him forever.

In the aftermath of the fire, Alex recovers several letters which were written by his late wife Carly before she died. The letters prepared ahead of time for memorable events such as Josh's eighteenth birthday and Lexie's wedding day. Alex gives Katie a letter with the words "To Her" on the envelope; the letter thanks the recipient for making Alex happy. Enclosed with the letter is a photo of Alex's late wife, whom Katie is astonished to discover was actually Jo. This means that Jo was Carly's ghost who led Katie to her husband, Alex.

Cast

Production

The film began principal photography on June 18, 2012 in Wilmington and Southport, North Carolina.[6] Parts of it were filmed in Louisiana and the opening scene with Katie on the Coach America bus is on the Linn Cove Viaduct along the Blue Ridge Parkway near Grandfather Mountain in Linville, North Carolina.

Reception

Box office

Safe Haven grossed US$71,349,120 in North America and US$26,245,020 in other territories for a worldwide total of US$97,594,140.[3]

In its opening weekend, the film grossed US$21,401,594, finishing third at the box office behind A Good Day to Die Hard (US$24,834,845) and Identity Thief (US$23,674,295).[3]

Critical reception

Critical reaction for Safe Haven was largely negative.[7][8][9][10][11] Peter Bradshaw, writing for The Guardian, called Safe Haven's setting "a sugary vision of small-town America that does not correspond with the real world at any point."[12] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film zero stars out of four, and concluded his review by stating: "I hate Safe Haven. It's a terrible thing to do to your Valentine."[13]

The film has a score of 34 on Metacritic, a "generally unfavorable" score, based on 33 reviews.[14] It holds a 12% "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 137 critic reviews.[15]

Accolades

Award Category Recipient Result Ref(s)
Teen Choice Awards Choice Movie: Romance Nominated [16]
Young Artist Awards Best Supporting Young Actress in a Feature Film Mimi Kirkland Nominated [17]

Home media

Safe Haven was released on DVD and Blu-ray on May 7, 2013.

References

  1. ↑ "Deborah Lurie to Score Lasse Hallstrom's 'Safe Haven'". FilmMusicReporter.com.
  2. ↑ "SAFE HAVEN (12A)". British Board of Film Classification. 2013-01-21. Retrieved 2013-01-21.
  3. 1 2 3 "Safe Haven (2013)". Boxofficemojo.com. 2013-02-14. Retrieved 2013-02-28.
  4. ↑ "Safe Haven (2013)". Boxoffice.com. 2013-03-04. Retrieved 2013-06-01.
  5. ↑ "'Turkeys' Gets Date, 'Safe Haven' Shifts". Deadline.com. Retrieved 2013-02-24.
  6. ↑ "Nicholas Sparks movie 'Safe Haven' starts shooting in Wilmington". WWayTV3.com. Retrieved October 25, 2012.
  7. ↑ "Episode #127 – Safe Haven", "The Flop House", 1 June 2013, Retrieved on 29 November 2014.
  8. ↑ Sharkey, Betsy. "Review: 'Safe Haven' can't find refuge from a cheesy story", "LA Times", 13 February 2013. Retrieved on 29 November 2014.
  9. ↑ Holden, Stephen. "Her Date Is a Single Dad; His, a Possible Killer", "New York Times", 13 February 2013. Retrieved on 29 November 2014.
  10. ↑ Anderson,Melissa. "Safe Haven: Unable to Ignite", 13 February 2013. Retrieved on 29 November 2014.
  11. ↑ Roeper, Richard. "Safe Haven", 12 February 2013. Retrieved on 29 November 2014.
  12. ↑ Bradshaw, Peter. "Safe Haven – review", "The Guardian", 28 February 2013, Retrieved on 29 November 2014.
  13. ↑ Travers, Peter. "Safe Haven", "Rolling Stone", 14 February 2013, Retrieved on 29 November 2014.
  14. ↑ "Safe Haven Reviews", "Metacritic", Retrieved on 29 November 2014.
  15. ↑ "Safe Haven", Retrieved on 29 November 2014.
  16. ↑ "Complete list of Teen Choice 2013 Awards winners". Los Angeles Times. Tribune Publishing. August 11, 2013. Retrieved June 10, 2015.
  17. ↑ "35th Annual Young Artist Awards". Young Artist Awards. Retrieved April 14, 2014.

External links

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