The Vow

Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams play Leo and Paige -a married couple desperately in love with each other. One snowy night in Chicago, they end up in a car accident (and, truth be told, it's kind of his fault), and Paige awakes from a coma with no memory of Leo. Now, her estranged family has returned, an old fiancée (Scott Speedman) sees an opportunity to win her back, and Leo is struggling to deal with it all.

Will Leo be able to win Paige's love all over again?

Will she ever be able to regain her memory?

The Vow is not as heinous and mushy as dudes fear, and not as romantic and dreamy as the ladies might be hoping. However, the ladies do get to check out Tatum, his Abs of Steal and another part of his body that will sell some tickets to people feeling a little bit lonely on Valentine's Day.

Sadly, while we have several writers working on the script, none of them provide any of the amazing, memorable dialogue you need for a romantic movie like this.

Give me one awesome line.

Give me one moment that knocks your socks off.

Give me one, heartbreaking, earthshaking declaration of pain and/or love.

You don't get that in The Vow. It's just passable.

The story is good enough, but doesn't have the desired impact at the climax. Every romantic in the crowd is hoping Leo can win back the love of his life as the odds keep stacking up against him, and the crew of writers give us enough mystery as we build up to the big revelation about why Paige's life took some huge diversion that led to Leo. However, the ex-fiancee is a bit too evil to be real, and the ultimate explanation why Paige became estranged from her family is too flimsy and too melodramatic to be the pay off we were all hoping for.

Yet, Tatum and McAdams keep us interested throughout The Vow. Essentially, McAdams is playing two different characters - a pre-Leo Paige and a post-Leo Paige, and excels at being the confused woman trying to make sense of her plight, without becoming a villain. She evokes a sympathy from the audience for Paige that is needed to make this romantic.

Even Tatum comes through in a few sweet moments. It's hard not to feel for his heartache and loss because he (mostly) avoids over doing it (most of the time). Tatum embodies a regular guy, and even shows a vulnerability to make us root for him, even though he could easily move on to the next hottie who likes his Abs of Steal body. No one will confuse him with George Clooney or Meryl Streep when it comes to acting ability, but he is showing an ability to grow, and be more than the guy who can shake his booty and Abs of Steal in ways that make ladies swoon.

The Vow has more flaws than you want in a movie, but keeps you interested enough.

The Vow is rated PG-13 for an accident scene, sexual content, partial nudity and some language