The Vow tells the ridiculous but apparently true story of a woman (McAdams) who wakes up from a car accident with short term memory loss. She remembers her mom (Lange), her dad (Neill), her sister (McNamee), and her ex-fiancé (Speedman), but not her recently-wed husband (Tatum) and his weird cadre of hipster friends (which is a plus in my book). The rest of the movie is spent trying to restore her memory and win back her love. The script was predictable but appropriately tender. There were scenes with awkward cheesy teen romance and others where we felt intimately close to everything going on.
Much like The Time Traveler's Wife, The Vow is about two imperfect people who do the best they can in an impossible situation. Both tell stories of people who are victims of circumstances beyond their control, whether it's time travel or amnesia, who end up causing pain to the people who love them. McAdams, with that mesmerizing sparkle in her eye, plays to perfection the exact same role she always does: the fiercely independent, slightly selfish artist whose love knows no bounds. The supporting cast, including Tatum, varied between acceptable and above average. Lange stood out the most, delivering a fantastically moving moment near the end of the film.
Although similar in almost all respects to The Time Traveler's Wife, The Vow fell behind in a number of areas. First, its cinematography was nothing to write home about. Second, the medicine was surprisingly less believable than the science of time travel. (I honestly don't think anybody in Hollywood knows what intubation or extubation looks like.) The Vow is a solid romance and a must for fans of Rachel McAdams. But for everyone else, the predictable story and middling technical aspects will leave you wanting more.
IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1606389/