Movie Rant- The Vow: Promises and Memories

I will be honest here: I'm not a chick-flick kind of person.

Give me action movies, fantasy, comedy, even drama, and I will watch it to the very end despite whatever my opinion might be about the film. I'll even stomach through one of those B-grade thriller movies where people seemed to die endlessly for one and a half hour and the only memorable script I can find is the ear-shattering scream of that blonde hot bimbo about to be hacked to death. (Yeah, I am that graphic)

But ask me to sit through romantic films, where boy-meets-girl, conflict, boy-and-girl-makes-up, and I will look for the nearest exit. There is something rather uncomfortable and awkward for me to watch a male and a female making out in front of me, even it is on the screen. Plus, I find most love stories to be so horribly cliche. I mean, honestly, no guy in the world would choose a klutzy anti-social overweight girl with ink on her forehead over a gorgeous model, at least not until said klutz has a makeover.

Which was why I surprised even myself by wanting to watch The Vow even before its release date. In fact, I had wanted to watch The Vow before I even caught the whole hype surrounding The Hunger Games. The latter was slated to be the next box-office, is adapted from a fantasy-fiction novel and is more of my kind of genre compared to The Vow. So why this movie?

To be fair, The Vow is also an adaptation of a book, moreover it was based on a true story of Kim and Krickitt Carpenter. Mrs. Carpenter suffered a brain trauma caused by an automobile accident which made her forget her relationship with her husband. However, the couple worked together to overcome this tragedy and remained married to this day, even having two children together. I feel that based on this story alone, The Vow is worth spending time and money at the cinema, because it is different from most romantic movies. It's not about a man and a woman who met for the first time and fell in love and fought to be together. It is about what happens after the happily ever after.

In the movie, The Vow tells the story of Leo and Paige Collins, a young married couple who were madly in love with each other. One night, on the way home from the cinema, they got into a car accident, where Paige  suffered a brain trauma causing her to forget all her recent memories, up to why she had left her upper-class family and a shot at law school to live in a run-down house and become a freelance sculptor. Leo has to come to terms that his wife does not remember him at all, never mind their life together. To make things worse, Paige's previously estranged parents, whom Leo had never met, appeared to claim her back.

While many critics has described this film as 'soulless', I find it painful to watch Leo's anguish and frustration as he struggled to win his wife's heart again, and at the same time having to juggle a diminishing musical career as well as having to fight his in-laws in order to make himself heard. Paige, understandably, was uncertain of her surroundings, and tried to wrap it around her head that she was married to a man she viewed as a complete stranger, as well as trying to reciprocate the feelings of someone who so obviously love her unconditionally.

Perhaps the most heartbreaking was during a scene from Paige and Leo's impromptu secret wedding in an art gallery, where they recited their own written vows off a piece of menu from their favourite cafe. Leo promise Paige that "...no matter what challenges might carry us apart, we will always find a way to each other." It was the very line that highlighted the theme of Leo's character- his fight to honour his vows to Paige on their wedding day, even if she doesn't remember. In a world where we see people divorcing after 72 hours of marriage (*cough*KimKardashian*cough*), it is bittersweet to watch a man fight for his wife that way. Although in Islamic wedding, there is no recital of "To love, honour and cherish.... for better or for worse... till death to us part", that is basically the grounds for any marriage, no matter what religion: Two people who will stand by each other come what may.

The only flaw that I find in the whole storyline was that despite everything he had done, Leo conceded in the end and divorced Paige in order for her to return to her family. I would have settled if Paige had gone to stay with her family without having Leo sign the divorce papers. But then again, even here, there is a silver lining. Returning to her family allows Paige to reconnect with her past, which was crucial to the events leading up to her first meeting with Leo. In the end, it took a whole walk down memory lane for Paige- and the audience- to understand who she really is, why she left her privileged upbringing for an independent life in the city and what made her make the choices that she did. In the end, it came down to Paige, not Leo, to discover her true self.

In short, there are two lessons that can be learned from watching The Vow: We must honour the promise we make to someone, the best way we can. And sometimes, we need to let someone find their own way, instead of pointing the path to them.