How
do you look at the woman you love, and tell yourself that it’s time to walk
away?
I just sat through an almost two hour chick flick. I do
know why I put myself through this but that will be revealed in a bit. The last
good chick flick I remember really liking and still like today despite its silly story
is 27 Dresses (and if you hate this
movie we cannot be friends. Sorry). I will be the first to admit I am not a
sappy romantic girl. I like to be thought of as a cold hearted bitch when it
comes to love. I am sure it is down to the fact that I have never really been
in love and that I do not know what it means to truly love someone. I do
understand the emotion of love and would not mind experiencing that emotion
someday. I just really do not have the patience for anyone else but me at the
moment. I am not a typical girl who dreams about having the perfect life. Honestly
what I dream about at the moment is finishing grad school, getting a real job,
moving out on my own, and marathoning the shit out TV shows and also being
utterly devoted to this blog again (screw you grad school for sucking up my
time!!).
With movies I like stories, I like the unexpected. I do
not like the typical. Chick flicks are all the same to me: guy and girl meet
each other by chance, they fall in love, something bad happens, they have to
repair their relationship despite all the obstacles thrown at them, and they fall happily
in love all over again. Oh and their friends or family are always there for them
as sound boards and for encouragement and support. What a boring story and incredibly boring one-dimensional characters. But
there is a quote and unfortunately for the life of me I cannot remember who
said it but it goes like this “All good stories are love stories.” Yeah, if
they are Gone With the Wind or Casablanca. Classic movies could get
away with romantic schmaltz and sometimes even they twist my insides with agony a bit. It kills me that typical chick flicks like The Vow are still so popular today. I understand
most audiences want mind numbing, don’t-have-to-think movies they just want to
be entertained. Sometimes I want to watch mind numbing, don’t-have-to-think
movies or shows. One of my favorite TV shows is Bob’s Burgers for crying out
loud!
Maybe I do not like chick flicks because I am cynical and
stubborn and give up to easily. Although, I always rooted for the guy and girl
to overcome their differences and get back together. I guess maybe I can be a
little romantic and like typical endings…. NOOOOO!!!!
Anyway, enough of my ranting about chick flicks and my
awful views on love.
The Vow is
about Leo (Channing Tatum) and Paige Collins (Rachel McAdams). They were very
happily married and in love with each other until they were in a car accident. Leo had the
car parked. He was still in his seatbelt but Paige was not. A truck hit them
from behind and Paige went through the windshield. She suffered a severe brain
injury where she does not remember her life before the crash. She does not
remember Leo at all. Her parents who she has not seen in years come to the
hospital after finding out about their daughter weeks later. They are happy
they have their “old” Paige back the one who was going to law school not the
one who up and left and went to art school.
Leo does everything he can to get Paige back into his
life. He tries despite all obstacles thrown at him.
Now I know you know the ending and do not need me to tell
you. Well I will tell you that Paige never does regain her memory of being
married to Leo.
The acting was not too bad. I think Rachel McAdams is so
talented and I feel terrible that she is so type casted in these chick flick
roles now. Channing Tatum to me is a just a piece of hot flesh to fill up the
screen and look pretty.
Alright so here is the reveal as to why I watched the
movie: Tatiana Maslany. Not ashamed to say she is my current girl crush. When I was
looking up her other work besides Orphan
Black I saw that she was in The Vow.
I was watching an episode of Orphan Black
at my uncle’s house. It
was a scene in the show where she was playing Rachel Duncan who is as far removed
from looking like Maslany does in the movie. My cousin said to me “that girl
looks familiar”. My cousin is one of those people that reads Nicholas Sparks
books and all she has in her small movie collection is chick flicks. I knew
right away that she had seen The Vow.
After that there was no way I could have my cousin see a Tatiana Maslany movie
that I have not seen! Seriously, Maslany is such an amazing actress that I will
watch anything she is in as evidenced by my sitting through this stinker. She played
Lily who was Leo’s soundboard and voice of encouragement. She showed more
emotion than McAdams and Tatum combined in her few scenes. She was fantastic in
two scenes: the first was when Lily and Leo are sitting outside drinking coffee
and trying to figure out ways to make Paige remember him. He mentioned she
liked to be tickled to help her relax. Maslany’s face of judgment was very
funny. The next was when Leo is at the end of his ropes and realizes there may
not be hope for them after all. The girl was brilliant. You can tell on her
face that Lily was truly sad for her friend and cared for him. It is incredible
to think that she was in a movie like this (by "this" I mean a mainstream Hollywood movie. She was in mostly independents up to this point) where she was just a second string character
used only as a soundboard and no one knew who she was at all. Now she is all
over the place with Orphan Black and
it was considered (still is considered) an outrage she was not nominated for an Emmy. Maslany got the part of
the clones a year after this movie. (if you have not watched Orphan Black stop reading this right
now, stop watching any other series you may be into at the moment and watch the
damn show! Tatiana Maslany does in twenty episodes with all the different
characters she plays what has taken Meryl Streep forty years to accomplish with
playing so many different types of characters).
 |
| Maslany as Rachel Duncan on Orphan Black |
Watching The Vow
was like having my teeth pulled except it was not over fast and I did not have
any medication for the pain of its bad acting and crappy story. There were some
points that I liked. I liked how the guy never gave up even when he felt he had
to. He never lost his faith he would be back with the true love of his life. Agh,
there I go again talking like a romantic girl! And I also liked their studio apartment
or whatever it was they lived in. I got really excited over seeing art books
and the awesome shelving they had. Honestly unless you are a diehard Tatiana Maslany
fan and are trying to get through the incredibly hard and emotionally draining Orphan Black hiatus do not even brother
sitting through The Vow (or unless you really really like romantic movies). Oh, the
movies I will watch just to see my favorite actors/actresses in!
