Safe Haven (2013) * 1/2

Directed by:  Lasse Hallstrom

Starring:  Julianne Hough, Josh Duhamel, David Lyons

Before the closing moments of Safe Haven, my review of this film would've been a bit different.    I wouldn't have overly praised it, but it was a decently made, if not predictable film about a young woman on the run from an abusive husband.    Then, the film unleashes a Big Reveal that is unnecessary, silly, and pointless.    What was it hoping to accomplish except to lay a heavy "whoa" moment on the audience?     I would've preferred an "it's all a dream" ending compared to this one. 

Let's start with what led up to the goofy ending.    The film opens with a young woman (Hough) boarding a bus to anywhere as a police detective is hot on her trail.    She escapes and departs the bus in a picturesque North Carolina town, which looks like a perfect place to start over.   She calls herself Katie and soon meets the town's other young person, a local shop owner named Alex (Duhamel), who is a kind, widowed father of two.    There is another young woman whom Katie befriends named Jo, who also seems to be running from something.   

Alex and Katie are instantly attracted, probably because they are the only two people left in town in the under-30 and single demographic.   Duhamel and Hough are likable and have a nice, unforced chemistry.    The children are at first wary of Katie because she isn't their dead mother, but they warm up to her also.    They go to the beach, go fishing, walk in the woods, and take in the abundant sunshine that seems to accompany all films based on Nicholas Sparks novels.    There is one rainstorm, however, just so we know that Katie and Alex don't reside in heaven.   Nonetheless, they fall in love. 

Paradise is soon to be invaded by the obsessed detective Tierney (Lyons), who sends out APB's that Katie (whose real name is Erin) is wanted for murder.   Flashbacks are shown.    Katie/Erin is shown holding a knife and there is a body lying in a pool of blood on the floor.    Is she indeed a murderer?   Was it self-defense?   And why is the detective so obsessed with tracking her down?    These questions are answered in time and all of this leads to a predictable, yet satisfactory conclusion.    Lyons is menacing as the hard-drinking detective whose role in Erin's predicament isn't at first what it seems.

Then after all is said and done, the aforementioned Big Reveal is sprung on us.    It didn't just come out of left field, it comes from another ballpark.    I was less shocked by it than I was appalled.    It doesn't shift the nature of what came before, but it brings about an otherworldly element that the film didn't really need.     It brings about a few questions, such as, "How can such a thing write a letter?"  "Why would it choose to speak to one character and not another, which is the one it really should be speaking to?"   I know I'm being hopelessly vague, but I don't want to ruin the spoiler for anyone.    However, I also can't properly give the film a thorough review without mentioning it either.    It's tough being me sometimes.