Movie Review: Haywire (2011)

Genre: Action  

Director: Steven Soderbergh  

Starring: Gina Carano, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Bill Paxton, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas  

Running Time: 93 minutes  

Synopsis: Agent Mallory Kane (Gina Carano) works for a private intelligence firm led by her ex-lover Kenneth (Ewen McGregor), conducting deniable missions for the CIA's Coblenz (Michael Douglas). After she narrowly escapes a tangle with ex-colleague Aaron (Channing Tatum), flashbacks reveal that her most recent assignments involved rescuing a Chinese national held hostage in Barcelona, and conducting surveillance in Ireland with MI6 agent Paul (Michael Fassbender). Mallory discovers that the two missions are linked and she is being set-up, triggering a quest for revenge.

What Works Well: Mixed martial artist Gina Carano infuses the frequent bone-crunching close-quarters to-the-death fight scenes with more than the usual authenticity. The supporting cast is stacked with talent, and director Steven Soderbergh maintains brisk pacing.

What Does Not Work As Well: Given the short running time, the plot is convoluted, overstuffed, dismissive of important details, and uninterested in textures. All the characters settle into stone-faced killer mode, and the late-in-the-day introduction of Mallory's father (Bill Paxton) is wasted. The multiple climactic battles ride a linear path from exciting to tiresome, Mallory's score-settling reduced to samey shorthand confrontations.

Key Quote:

Paul: I'm assuming the motives of everyone involved are strictly professional.

Kenneth: Paul... the motive is money. The motive is always money.

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Movie Review: Blink Twice (2024)

Genre: Psychological Horror  

Director: Zoë Kravitz  
Starring: Naomi Ackie, Channing Tatum, Alia Shawkat, Geena Davis, Kyle MacLachlan, Christian Slater  
Running Time: 102 minutes  

Synopsis: Catering waitress Frida (Naomi Ackie) and her friend Jess (Alia Shawkat) work a function featuring celebrity technology tycoon Slater King (Channing Tatum). He was embroiled in controversy and took a break from public life, buying an island and getting help from a therapist (Kyle MacLachlan). Frida and Jess are star-struck by Slater and his entourage, and he invites them to a fun getaway. On the island they meet fellow guest and reality TV show star Sarah (Adria Arjona), but what starts as a dream luxurious vacation soon takes a dark turn.

What Works Well: This rich-white-men-are-bad journey to hell is not short on themes. The ripe buffet of topics includes probing a culture obsessed with empty apologies; the mechanisms of sophisticated sexual abuse; the gap between forgiving and forgetting; confronting childhood trauma; celebrity obsession leading none-too-bright women to dangerous adventures in search of drinks-and-drugs good times; and the power of sisterhood. 

What Does Not Work As Well: Poorly paced, frequently bathed in darkness, overly ambitious, and lacking in likeable characters, the plot meanders for too long before finding a purpose. With competing mind-altering substances getting in each other's way, the evil intentions are revealed in defanged minimal impact snippets, courage deserting the project when needed most. The final act defaults to B-movie bloody revenge beats, and given the subject matter, the clumsy attempts at humour are misplaced.

Key Quote:

Slater: Are you having a good time?

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Movie Review: Dear John (2010)

A drama and romance, Dear John enjoys picturesque stars and old-fashioned romance-by-letter, but never rises above elemental cliches.

In the spring of 2001, John Tyree (Channing Tatum) of the US army's special forces is enjoying a vacation in Charleston, South Carolina, where his father (Richard Jenkins) lives. At the beach John meets college student Savannah (Amanda Seyfried) on her spring break, along with her friend Tim (Henry Thomas) and his young autistic son. John and Savannah fall in love, although she notices he has a quick temper. Savannah also befriends John's dad, a soft-spoken coin collector on the autism scale.

John reports back to the army to complete his remaining year of service, and the lovers continue their romance by letter. But after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, John is obligated to re-enlist, and the long-distance relationship is severely tested.

An adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel, Dear John is a predictable sombre romance. Director Lasse Hallström adds a veneer of quality, Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfriend make for an appealing photogenic couple, and Jamie Linden's script is bearable. But the good components cannot overcome embedded character triteness and contrived mini-crises.

John is sensitive and brooding, but can also be triggered into violence at the slightest provocation. Channing Tatum therefore wears the same expression throughout, his acting consisting of a chiselled physique and hardened presence. Savannah is pure, innocent, and helpful, placing the needs of others ahead of her own. She is so good that Amanda Seyfried is given little to work with, although she does get to jump-hug onto the relatively gigantic Tatum at regular intervals. 

Predictably, both characters make all the necessary poor and incomprehensible decisions at exactly the wrong times to artificially impose as many obstacles as possible in the path of their happiness.

With Tim's son and Mr. Tyree both on the spectrum, the narrative appears to want to say something about autism, but never quite gets there. Richard Jenkins bring poignancy to the role of John's father, and the bond Savannah forges with him is promising, but the sub-plot is all but abandoned. Equally half-hearted are the father-son travails scattered among the coin collection motif.

In long hand and on paper, Dear John finds little new to write about.



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Movie Review: White House Down (2013)

An action thriller about the attempted violent overthrow of the United States President, White House Down carves out territory on the knowing side of preposterous.

Army veteran and Capitol Police officer John Cale (Channing Tatum) is part of the security detail for Speaker of the House Eli Raphelson (Richard Jenkins). Cale's 11-year-old daughter Emily (Joey King) accompanies him to the White House, where Carol Finnerty (Maggie Gyllenhaal) of the Secret Service interviews Cale for a position on the President's security team. Father and daughter then join a White House tour.

United States President James Sawyer (Jamie Foxx) is seeking global support for a bold but controversial Middle East peace plan. But traitorous Senior Secret Service Agent Martin Walker (James Woods) has assembled a team of mercenaries to storm the White House and overthrow Sawyer's government. The mercenaries are led by Emil Stenz (Jason Clarke), and include psychotic white supremacist Killick (Kevin Rankin) and computer hacker Skip Tyler (Jimmi Simpson). 

The invaders take over the White House and seize hostages, demanding a $400 million ransom. Cale breaks loose and fights back, managing to extract Sawyer from Walker's clutches, while Emily captures and uploads video of the unfolding drama. Cale needs to keep Sawyer safe and rescue Emily as the full extent of Walker's plot becomes clear.

Silly, noisy, often stupid, overlong and saddled with graceless CGI, White House Down is also watchable because it never takes itself too seriously. While Olympus Has Fallen, also released in 2013 with a similar plot, is grittier and better, here director Roland Emmerich lets loose his (literal) flag-waving tendencies while destroying chunks of the White House (again), and whenever faced with a choice between subtle and ludicrous, chooses over-the-top. The entertainment level is of the brainless variety, but within that constraint, fun can found.

And so Cale and Sawyer engage in a ridiculous car chase, driving in circles around the fountain of the White House lawn. The bad guys alternate between one-shot, one-kill expediency and cross-eyed incompetence, depending on the script requirements. CGI-created machines crash at regular intervals in a horrible dissolution of unconvincing pixels, and any quip is a good quip, whether smart or sophomoric.

The extended preamble to introduce the characters and set the context is welcome. But the film is otherwise overlong at a wholly unnecessary 131 minutes, and despite the length, critical plot points are half-baked. It's deep into the crisis before Walker's real intentions are finally revealed in a jumbled rush, and until then the ransom demand is a limp excuse for the unfolding carnage.

The reliable cast is filled with talent and helps overcome some of the goofiness. Channing Tatum is up to the task of saving the day, and bites into the role of John Cale with grim determination to (in no particular order) keep the President safe, extricate his daughter from the clutches of maniacal seditionists, and earn himself a position with the Secret Service in the world's worst on-the-job interview. The White House may be down, but as long as a job can still be earned, it's not quite out.



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Movie Review: The Dilemma (2011)

A comedy-drama-buddy movie, The Dilemma creates a narrative mountain out of a molehill.

In Chicago, Ron (Vince Vaughn) and Nick (Kevin James) are business partners and long-time friends. Ron is a smooth salesman and Nick is a brilliant engineer, and they secure a lucrative but time-constrained contract to develop a high-powered electric engine for Chrysler. Nick is seemingly happily married to Geneva (Winona Ryder) while Ron, a recovering gambling addict, is in a long-term relationship with Beth (Jennifer Connelly) and thinking of proposing.

With all the pressure on Nick to deliver the innovative new engine, Ron spots Geneva in a lovers' embrace with hunky Zip (Channing Tatum). Ron is caught in a dilemma, not sure if and when he should tell his already frazzled friend that his wife appears to be cheating. The secret starts weighing on Ron, affecting his own relationship with Beth.

Incongruously directed by Ron Howard and written by Allan Loeb, The Dilemma may have worked as a 90 minute independent feature with a light and quirky touch. Instead, here it is bloated into two hours of torment, with an overpowering star name in every underwritten role as Howard strains every muscle to stretch the flimsy premise into an event. Even Queen Latifah shows up as a preposterous auto industry consultant.

The entire film hinges on Ron suppressing a "your wife is cheating" conversation with Nick, and none of the surrounding fluff makes any difference: Ron's background as a gambling addict; his college-days romantic adventures; Nick's extracurricular massage parlour habits; Beth's parents' anniversary; the electric engine project and even the non-entity of Zip's character. All are undeveloped idea fragments sprayed around to pad the running time and obscure the paucity of substance.

The marginal positives include a few laughs and chuckles when Vaughn finds some form in his monologues. But ever here Loeb somehow introduces a borderline homophobic remark, and the continuous faux-macho football-infused banter between Ron and Nick is juvenile and tiresome. Other than being a wife and a girlfriend respectively, Geneva and Beth are provided with no exposition.

Despite all the available talent on both sides of the camera, The Dilemma wallows in an exaggerated quandary of its own making.

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Movie Review: Logan Lucky (2017)

A redneck heist movie, Logan Lucky offers some laughs but is too clunky and cluttered to succeed.

In North Carolina, Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) is fired from his construction job at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, but not before hatching up a robbery plan targeting the subsurface cash-carrying pneumatic tubes. Jimmy teams up with his brother Clyde (Adam Driver), a bar owner who lost an arm in the Iraq war, and they recruit imprisoned safecracker Joe Bang (Daniel Craig) and his two dimwit brothers Sam (Brian Gleeson) and Fish (Jack Quaid).

Clyde intentionally gets himself imprisoned in the same facility as Joe, and they spark a mini-riot as a diversion while they temporarily break out of jail and join Jimmy and the others under the Speedway on the day of the Coca Cola 600. Not much seems to go according to plan, and it's up to FBI agent Sarah Grayson (Hilary Swank) to try to clean up the post-heist mess.

Director Steven Soderbergh came out of a short-lived retirement to direct Logan Lucky, and maybe he need not have bothered. A lowbrow Ocean's Eleven set amongst the ignoramus set, it's never clear if the film is making fun of or celebrating its protagonists, and in any case, it barely matters. While there may have been some merit in exploring unsophisticated thievery among the unwashed, the film is disjointed, uneven, and overstuffed with incidental secondary and tertiary characters.

In addition to Jimmy, Clyde, Joe, Sam and Fish, Mellie (Riley Keough) is the sister of Jimmy and Clyde; Bobbie Jo (Katie Holmes) is Jimmy's ex-wife, and Moody (David Denman) is her current husband; Max (Seth MacFarlane) is an insufferable Nascar team owner; Dayton (Sebastian Stan) believes himself to be a finely tuned driver, and Dwight Yoakam plays prison warden Burns. All are barely developed characters poking in and out of the movie at regular intervals, tripping over each other and contributing little.

Channing Tatum and Adam Driver do their best to elevate the material, and the exchanges between the brothers, with Driver particularly effective as the sombre sibling fully convinced a curse hangs over the Logans, is the best thing going for the film.

Otherwise, the heist logistics and details are never explained, Soderbergh creating narrative chaos by clarifying nothing. Once some light is shed on what everyone was running around doing, the film's logic, already strained, falls apart, the heist details too far-fetched and ambitious for any one of the nitwits on display to cobble together.

Rarely funny and never exciting nor clever, Logan Lucky sputters off the start line, does one slow lap and retires into the pits.

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Movie Review: Stop-Loss (2008)

An examination of combat-induced post traumatic stress disorder and the added strain of an army forcibly re-enlisting soldiers, Stop-Loss shines a familiar light on the human cost of war.

During a tour of duty in Iraq, US Army Staff Sergeant Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe) leads his squad into an ambush. In the ensuing intense battle the squad suffers losses: Rodriguez (Victor Rasuk) is severely wounded, "Preacher" is killed, and Tommy Burgess (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is traumatized. King storms a building to save his close friend Sergeant Steve Shriver (Channing Tatum), but in the process causes many civilian deaths, including women and children.

Back in their small Texas community of Brezos, King, Shriver and Burgess are celebrated as heroes. Shriver exhibits signs of PTSD and strikes his girlfriend Michelle (Abbie Cornish) while Burgess embarks on an alcohol-fuelled self-destructive path. King is keen to be discharged having fulfilled his Army obligations, but is shocked to receive a "stop-loss" order from Lieutenant Colonel Boot Miller (Timothy Olyphant) forcing him to serve another tour in Iraq. He refuses to comply and goes AWOL with Michelle's help. Shriver is caught between duty to his country and his friend's erratic actions.

Directed and co-written by Kimberly Peirce, Stop-Loss fulfils its earnest intention of revealing the trauma of war amplified by the dubious forced reenlistment practice, essentially conscription under another name. Arriving five years into the protracted and unpopular war, the film takes on an easy target and quickly sketches in young men believing they are doing the right thing coming back shell-shocked and jaded, only to be betrayed by the one institution they believed in.

After building a sturdy foundation with the opening battle and subsequent small-town hero's welcome, Stop-Loss stalls. Once King refuses his reenlistment orders and hits the road, the script loops around in lazy circles. As part of his search for a way out of his predicament King visits the badly wounded Rodriguez in a military hospital and Preacher's parents, useful war-is-hell narrative devices but perhaps not exactly what an AWOL Sergeant would do.

Momentum is further lost when Shriver re-emerges to try and reel in his friend, and the triangle of Michelle as Shriver's girl helping King in his escape remains rickety throughout, not helped by unconvincing emotional outbursts. Ryan Phillippe, Channing Tatum and Abbie Cornish are adequate in the stoic mid-range, but struggle in more expressive moments. A physical scuffle in a graveyard becomes a clumsy low point instead of a cathartic climax.

Stop-Loss revisits the well-worn physical and emotional losses of war, then stops.

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Movie Review: Side Effects (2013)

A neo-noir psychological crime drama, Side Effects enjoys a twisty tale but mediocre execution.

Young wife Emily Taylor (Rooney Mara) is suffering from depression as she awaits the release of her husband Martin (Channing Tatum) from prison. The couple's lavish lifestyle had come to a crashing halt when Martin was arrested and locked up for financial fraud. Martin is freed after finishing his sentence and starts planning to reconstitute their life, but Emily is suicidal; she tries to kill herself by driving head-on into a wall.

She survives, and psychologist Dr. Jonathan Banks (Jude Law) takes her on as a patient, eventually prescribing Ablixa, an experimental new anti-depressant drug. In researching Emily's background, Jonathan also connects with Dr. Victoria Siebert (Catherine Zeta-Jones), who had previously tried to help Emily. Ablixa appears to improve Emily's mood, but the side effects include sleep walking. Suddenly, a violent crime is committed, and Jonathan finds his life turning upside down and his career threatened with ruin.

Directed by Steven Soderbergh, Side Effects holds promise as an unexpected murder mystery laced with illicit passion, a devious conspiracy, and potentially a lot to say about the pharmaceutical industry, mental health and financial wrong doing. While the twists and turns maintain a decent level of engagement, the film's plot points start tumbling into each other. This is a movie that bites off large chunks and then refuses to chew.

At 106 minutes, the film is shorter than it needs to be for the amount of plot and characters packed in. Soderbergh may be aiming for the compact noir style of no scene longer than it needs to be and absolutely no unnecessary scenes, but he sells the narrative short. As the final third hurtles towards a conclusion, counter conspiracies unfurl at a pace too frantic to generate the appropriate level of appreciation. The rest of the noir elements are more about content than visual style. The story contains almost every foundational plank from crime to sex passing through the manipulation of a clueless man, but the aesthetics are relatively free of the more obvious noir stunts.

The film is hampered by an abrupt change of perspective. The first half is Emily's story, but about halfway through she is effectively marginalized and Side Effects becomes a lot more about Jonathan. While both characters are interesting, neither is provided with enough time or context to become truly rounded.

The cast is solid, with Jude Law controlling his more rascal-like tendencies and delivering an inviting performance despite the limitations of the material. Rooney Mara is the most memorable part of the movie, and Side Effects suffers as her prominence fades. Catherine Zeta-Jones is victimized the most by the film's too-sharp editing. Dr. Victoria Siebert could have been a fascinating character, but here she is reduced to a cartoon schemetress.

Side Effects promises forward momentum, but too often moves sideways.

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The Movies Of Channing Tatum

All movies starring Channing Tatum and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Stop-Loss (2008)

Public Enemies (2009)

Dear John (2010)

The Dilemma (2011)

Haywire (2011)

The Vow (2012)

Magic Mike (2012)

Side Effects (2013)

White House Down (2013)

Foxcatcher (2014)

The Hateful Eight (2015)

Hail, Caesar! (2016)

Logan Lucky (2017)

Blink Twice (2024)

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The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: Foxcatcher (2014)

A somber drama about wrestling and egomania, Foxcatcher is a quietly powerful examination of human relationships. The story of one rich man's need to be admired on his own terms is unsettling in its normalcy, and the film enjoys three excellent central performances.

It's 1987, and brothers Mark and Dave Schultz (Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo), both Olympic wrestling gold medalists, are training for the upcoming world championships and the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Having endured a difficult upbringing in a broken household, the brothers have a tight relationship, with the older Dave acting as a mentor and inspiration to the younger, moodier Mark. Dave is now settled and raising a family with wife Nancy (Sienna Miller); Mark remains a loner.

Out of the blue, Mark is contacted by billionaire John E. du Pont (Steve Carell), who offers an annual salary and training facilities as part of Team Foxcatcher at his expansive estate in Pennsylvania. John is single and living under the shadow of his mother Jean (Vanessa Redgrave). He claims to be a patriot and wrestling fan, and imagines himself as a coach and a mentor, wanting to nurture and celebrate America's heroes. Mark accepts the offer and relocates to the du Pont estate for training with other wrestlers. Dave initially refuses a similar offer, not wanting to disrupt his family. With continued success in the wrestling ring, a bond develops between John and Mark, but gradually John's increasingly bizarre behaviour begins to cause tension between the brothers.

Directed by Bennett Miller and based on real events, Foxcatcher is a disconcerting story about the insidious forces that lurk within a damaged psyche. Filled with pregnant pauses, quiet moments and awkward interactions, the film burrows into the soul of three men and finds plenty of opportunities for victimization. Foxcatcher never shouts its intentions; Miller allows the characters to speak for themselves through often subdued actions, and creates remarkable heights of drama from nothing but stares and silence.

The triangular relationship between the two wrestlers and the billionaire heir is at the centre of the film. John du Pont is severely damaged, but his scars are not on the surface. A man who owns everything but is yet exceedingly needy, his faults emerge gradually like an invisible vaporous poison seeping slowly and infecting his surroundings. Once Mark understands that John is not a well man, he is in too deep, entangled in a soul-destroying relationship. Dave is more settled, more secure and therefore more able to resist John's money and superficial pablum about patriotism. But driven at least partially by the need to help his brother, even Dave is not fully immune and he is also sucked into John's orbit.

The men are individually fascinating. Drawn together, they create a new, volatile dynamic, their co-dependencies built on an unstable mixture of deep family bonds, exceptionally easy money and unpredictable narcissism.

Miller demonstrates noteworthy control over the material and uses an economy of words and scenes to build complexity. The causes of John's character issues are dealt with in a few effective strokes featuring his mother and the family background. One devastating sequence has John pathetically trying to convince himself and the unimpressed, wheelchair-constrained Jean that he is indeed a coach. In another exceedingly uncomfortable interlude, John celebrates with the wrestlers by clumsily attempting to joke-wrestle with them, the privileged loner trying in vain to be one of the guys.

Foxcatcher needed three exceptional performances to thrive, and Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo and Channing Tatum deliver. Carell is a revelation, leaving far behind his comic persona and finding a dangerous place for John, where reality slowly detaches and drifts away from a seemingly normal mind. Ruffalo and Tatum create a winning pair of brothers, their relationship filled with a mosaic of tension, mutual admiration and layered dependencies.

Foxcatcher is a unique and captivating achievement, a stunning and unforgettable story told with muted authority.

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Movie Review: Magic Mike (2012)

An excuse for quality gawking of the guilty kind, Magic Mike combines set-pieces of male strippers strutting their stuff with a bland script, and lands somewhere between an enjoyable night out and a tortuously unconvincing drama.

In Tampa, Florida, Michael "Magic Mike" Lane (Channing Tatum) is a popular stripper by night and an aspiring entrepreneur during the day, working a series of jobs to help finance the launch of his own furniture business. Mike works at a club owned by Dallas (Matthew McConaughey), a former stripper now focussing on the business and hoping to relocate the club to the more lucrative Miami market. Mike enjoys the company of friend-with-benefits Joanna (Olivia Munn), but at 30 years old he is getting old for stripping and feels the pressure to get on with his life.

At a construction site Mike meets the unemployed 19 year old Adam (Alex Pettyfer), invites him down to the club, and thrusts him on stage. Adam proves to be a decent stripper and joins the club as a regular performer known as "The Kid", much to the consternation of his sister Brooke (Cody Horn), a nurse. Mike starts to romantically pursue Brooke, and assures her that he will look after Adam's welfare. But the life of stripping, sex, and drugs does catch up with Adam, while Mike grows impatient with Dallas blocking his business ambitions, and Brooke wonders if Mike is a man worth pursuing.

Loosely inspired by a real-life episode in Tatum's life, Magic Mike is a relatively innocuous night of wild fun. The movie entertains without engaging, the showier elements leaving a mark and a smile, while the recycled drama and characters quickly slip into forgettable territory.

When the men are on the stage, bodies glistening and gyrating, the women in the audience whooping and hollering, and the music thumping, Magic Mike is at its best. Director Steven Soderbergh packs his movie with plenty of stage highlights, and although these scenes do little to advance the plot, they inject undeniable energy. Soderbergh steers clear of jerky cameras and micro-edits, allowing the dancing to flow with sensual fluidity and capturing the attraction of sexy but harmless revues.

Less convincing is the drama surrounding Mike and Adam. The story of the innocent newcomer thrust into the world of spotlights and sin is just too trite to resonate, while the push for romance between Mike and Brooke never gains traction. Worse of all is the contrived tension between Mike and Dallas, a barely developed simmering dispute having something to do with Mike seeking an equity stake while Dallas is not too eager to share his empire.

Matthew McConaughey stands out with the most magnetic performance, creating in Dallas the club puppet master, and displaying a sinewy athleticism to go along with an oily personality. Channing Tatum and Alex Pettyfer get by on looks and minimal acting talent, while Cody Horn contributes a welcome natural presence but sometimes veers towards the amateurish.

Mike is pure magic on the stage, but rather mundane off it.

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Movie Review: The Vow (2012)

A sincere romance, The Vow fulfils its objective but never risks much excitement. The story of crash-induced amnesia threatening an ideal marriage is inspired by real events and told with heart, but there is no zing to energize the purposeful march towards a predictable resolution.

In Chicago, Paige (Rachel McAdams) and Leo (Channing Tatum) meet, fall in love, and get married. She's an artist and he owns a music studio, and together they are the definition of a perfect couple.  Their lives are shattered when Paige is knocked unconscious in a car crash. When she recovers from a medically induced coma, the past five years of her life are lost from her memory. Leo is a stranger, and Paige is more comfortable with her parents (Sam Neill and Jessica Lange) and still in love with former boyfriend Jeremy (Scott Speedman).

Paige and Leo gingerly try to re-establish their previous relationship, but while Leo is still madly in love, she is cool and detached, unable to find any passion in her work, and incapable of resisting the pull of her rich parents and Jeremy's re-ignited attentions. Leo does his best, but some clumsy missteps result in Paige moving back in with her parents, and the marriage teetering on the edge of extinction.

There is nothing not to like in The Vow, with a story of a fervent match made in heaven and a devoted husband fighting to re-earn the love of his wife. McAdams and Tatum have reasonable chemistry, the familial conflicts are never over-exaggerated, and Chicago provides steady support. Even the best friend characters are relatively normal rather than excessively animated. The film may lack a hot spark, but in being reasonably faithful to the essence of a true story, it probably wasn't looking for one.

Rachel McAdams is sweetness personified, her glowing personality carrying The Vow whether as the devoted wife or the confused victim of amnesia. The perkiness factor is never in doubt with McAdams, and the camera absolutely adores her, but doubts remain about the available depth behind the vivacious girl-next-door persona, and The Vow does little to challenge her.

Channing Tatum is lumpy, with a performance that is far from convincing enough to confirm his credentials as a leading man. His portrayal of the sensitive husband struggling with a fractured life is full of doe-eyed sadness, but he never threatens to dominate the screen with emotion or anguish.

Stalwarts Sam Neill and Jessica Lange provide straight-back support as Paige's parents, and Lange is afforded one dramatic scene to try and cook a stiff stand-by-your-man story. Neill never wavers from a stern Dad role straight out of the first chapter of the screenwriting handbook.

Director Michael Sucsy, in his big-screen debut, rides with the flow, wisely relying on McAdams to smooth out the rougher patches, erring on the side of over-exposing Chicago's landmarks, and generally doing little to either get in the way or enhance the narrative.

The Vow neither disappoints nor surprises, it just marches stoically down a well-worn aisle, delivering the requisite gentle tears and warm laughs.

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