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THE VOW (2012)Movie Reviews
Drama about a young husband's attempts to win the heart of his wife, who suffered severe memory loss following a car accident. Cast:Rachel McAdams, Channing Tatum, Sam Neill, Scott SpeedmanDirector:Michael SucsyRelease Date:February 10, 2012DVD Release:May 8, 2012From:Sony PicturesRating:PG-13Length:1 hr 44 min
The Vow (2012) played to fair reviews. • Katey Rich wrote for Cinema Blend, "...a straight shot down the middle of ooey-gooey romance territory, and as likable as Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum are, their presence is small comfort..." • And Ty Burr wrote in the Boston Globe, "...quite watchable date-night cheese - the kind of movie you can simultaneously snort at and enjoy." More Reviews Below...
The Vow (2012) Positive Reviews (38 Reviews, reviews below)
Mary Pols, Time: GOOD (NOT GREAT) "...sugary sweet... so rich in its ripeness and full in its foolishness that I look forward to groaning in happy horror when I inevitably see it again..."(See all of Mary Pols's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 929 words, 02/10/12
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: WEAK(cg) "Director Michael Sucsy did a sharp job avoiding weepie quicksand with HBO's 'Grey Gardens,' but the soap suds in 'The Vow' drag him under."(See all of Peter Travers's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 227 words, 02/10/12
Roger Ebert, RogerEbert.com: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...a well-behaved, tenderhearted love story... The way the story resolves itself offers poetic justice.... pleasant enough as a date movie, but that's all."(See all of Roger Ebert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 705 words, 02/10/12
Kat Murphy, MSN Movies: WEAK(cg) "...swaddled in sanitized Saran wrap... most of 'The Vow' consists of McAdams staring at Tatum and vice versa. This is not a productive trope."(See all of Kat Murphy's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 749 words, 02/09/12
James Berardinelli, Reel Views: WEAK(cg) "...with its would-be crowd-pleasing contrivances and rote adherence to formula, offers almost no redeeming characteristics.... it is steeped in artifice..."(See all of James Berardinelli's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 960 words, 02/09/12
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NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES/CHICAGO/TORONTO (13 Reviews)
A.O. Scott, New York Times: WEAK "...even by the standards of commercial melodrama it's a pretty weak brew.... Is this a romance about neurological impairment or a neurologically impaired romance?"(See all of A.O. Scott's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 663 words, 02/10/12
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: WEAK "...a romantically and medically challenged weepie.... a movie that leaves you wanting more.... To care more, to cry more, to love more."(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 820 words, 02/10/12
Sara Stewart, New York Post: VERY GOOD(cg) "Michael Sucsy ('Grey Gardens') works within the trappings of a typical cheesy romance but finds realism in the details and the banter."(See all of Sara Stewart's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 547 words, 02/10/12
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...the largely female audience was audibly, collectively sighing 'awwwwwww!' each time the ardent hunk played by Channing Tatum did something romantic..."(See all of Michael Phillips's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 621 words, 02/10/12
Joseph Amodio, New York Newsday: VERY GOOD(cg) "...a romantic charmer... a rather spicy premise - what do you do if your partner survives a car crash but wakes up with no memory of the last 5 years?"(See all of Joseph Amodio's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 372 words, 02/10/12
Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine: FAIR "...something feels a little off, conceptually... the imbalance of emotional temperatures at the film's heart feels fatal for something so dependent on chemistry."(See all of Bilge Ebiri's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 574 words, 02/13/12
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...a well-behaved, tenderhearted love story... The way the story resolves itself offers poetic justice.... pleasant enough as a date movie, but that's all."(See all of Roger Ebert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 705 words, 02/10/12
Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice/LA Weekly: MODERATE "...makes the least of its concept... an unobstructed view of charismatic performers, playing people working earnestly at a rather impossible situation."(See all of Nick Pinkerton's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 461 words, 02/15/12
Jennie Punter, Toronto Globe & Mail: MODERATE(cg) "Revealing the real-life connection just before the end credits does not suddenly transform 'The Vow' into something beyond a mildly pleasing diversion."(See all of Jennie Punter's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 638 words, 02/10/12
Glenn Sumi, Toronto Now: WEAK(cg) "...a silly romance that'll quickly evaporate from your memory.... All this hokum would be semi-bearable if the characters had any depth."(See all of Glenn Sumi's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 232 words, 02/16/12
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...impossibly corny... McAdams and Tatum aren't exactly thespian heavyweights, but even if they were, there isn't much they can do with this hokey melodrama..."(See all of Steven Rea's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 487 words, 02/10/12
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star-Tribune: VERY GOOD(cg) "The best thing in the film is McAdams... In less skillful hands, 'The Vow' would be a guilty pleasure. Instead, it's just a pleasure."(See all of Colin Covert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 452 words, 02/10/12
Stephen Whitty, New Jersey Star-Ledger: MODERATE(cg) "...features Channing Tatum wandering around in low-slung pajama bottoms... get ready to call up your girlfriends and go."(See all of Stephen Whitty's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 562 words, 02/10/12
Louis B. Parks, San Francisco Chronicle: POOR(cg) "The movie improves in the last half hour... the resolution, though basically what you'll expect, proves satisfyingly messier and more believable than anticipated."(See all of Louis B. Parks's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 329 words, 02/10/12
Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times: MODERATE(cg) "All of these people seem like lazy sketches rather than developed characters; it's tempting to wonder how moving 'The Vow' might have been..."(See all of Moira Macdonald's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 353 words, 02/10/12
Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: MODERATE(cg) "If I get in a car accident, suffer a traumatic head injury, and emerge from a coma to find Channing Tatum telling me that he's my husband, I'm just going to go with it."(See all of Connie Ogle's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 537 words, 02/10/12
ALTERNATIVE/INDIE PRESS (10 Reviews)
Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice/LA Weekly: MODERATE "...makes the least of its concept... an unobstructed view of charismatic performers, playing people working earnestly at a rather impossible situation."(See all of Nick Pinkerton's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 461 words, 02/15/12
Katey Rich, Cinema Blend: WEAK(cg) "...a straight shot down the middle of ooey-gooey romance territory, and as likable as Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum are, their presence is small comfort..."(See all of Katey Rich's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 731 words, 02/09/12
Keith Phipps, AV Club: MODERATE(cg) "...isn't afraid to pile silliness upon silliness... Their love seems based less on fate or brain chemistry than on the requirements of formula."(See all of Keith Phipps's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 500 words, 02/09/12
Andrew Blackie, Pop Matters: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...doesn't cut very deeply into its traumatic and painful subject matter, but director Michael Sucsy invests the scenes between the couple with warmth and awkwardness."(See all of Andrew Blackie's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 549 words, 02/10/12
Alison Willmore, Movieline: GOOD(cg) "...no last-minute gallop through an airport or desperate clinch in the rain. It's a more grown-up conclusion than you'd expect, but feels anticlimactic..."(See all of Alison Willmore's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 835 words, 02/10/12
R. Kurt Osenlund, Slant: MODERATE(cg) "What Tatum and McAdams create has a genuine sweetness. Everything else is as saccharine and prepackaged as the cheap treats at Leo and Paige's favorite haunt..."(See all of R. Kurt Osenlund's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 843 words, 02/09/12
Glenn Sumi, Toronto Now: WEAK(cg) "...a silly romance that'll quickly evaporate from your memory.... All this hokum would be semi-bearable if the characters had any depth."(See all of Glenn Sumi's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 232 words, 02/16/12
MaryAnn Johanson, Flick Filosopher: POOR(cg) "...here we have every idiotic romantic-movie cliché sexed up with brain damage.... plays like it was written by a dreamy 12-year-old who is utterly naive about life."(See all of MaryAnn Johanson's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 933 words, 02/07/12
HIGHBROW PRESS (2 Reviews)
A.O. Scott, New York Times: WEAK "...even by the standards of commercial melodrama it's a pretty weak brew.... Is this a romance about neurological impairment or a neurologically impaired romance?"(See all of A.O. Scott's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 663 words, 02/10/12
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: WEAK "...a romantically and medically challenged weepie.... a movie that leaves you wanting more.... To care more, to cry more, to love more."(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 820 words, 02/10/12
MOVIE INDUSTRY (5 Reviews)
Peter Debruge, Daily Variety: MODERATE "...unabashedly sentimental... it feels like an ice-cream shopping spree in which you can have any flavor you want, so long as it's vanilla."(See all of Peter Debruge's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 954 words, 02/08/12
Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: FAIR "Cornball... has the benefit of being based on a true story, but its melodramatic premise more than anything resembles soapy tearjerkers of the '30s and '40s..."(See all of Todd McCarthy's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 931 words, 02/08/12
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: WEAK "...a romantically and medically challenged weepie.... a movie that leaves you wanting more.... To care more, to cry more, to love more."(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 820 words, 02/10/12
Emanuel Levy, Cinema 24/7: FAIR(cg) "...stale, cliché-ridden... relies on endless flashbacks and slow stretches of uneventful dialogue by Abby Kohn, Marc Silverstein, and Jason Katims."(See all of Emanuel Levy's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 691 words, 02/09/12
A.O. Scott, New York Times: WEAK "...even by the standards of commercial melodrama it's a pretty weak brew.... Is this a romance about neurological impairment or a neurologically impaired romance?"(See all of A.O. Scott's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 663 words, 02/10/12
16.1 Percentage Points Average Difference Between Reviews (Norm is 18.4pp; <18.4pp = More Consistent; >18.4pp = More Mixed)
The Vow (2012)'s reviews are separated by an average 16.1 percentage points. The norm for this measure is 18.4 percentage points. Less than 18.4 indicates more consistent reviews; greater than 18.4 indicates more mixed reviews. In the chart below, each dot represents a review, with the dots at the top more positive than the dots at the bottom. From left to right, the dots represent reviews in big, bigger and biggest publications. Roll over each dot for more detail.
The Vow (2012) (38 reviews) Roll over dots for each review
Coverage:The Vow (2012)'s reviews cover 64.5% of potential readers (average is 67.9%). Volume:The film's reviews total 22,144 words involume (average is 20,194 words). Length:The film's reviews average 583 words in length (the norm is 517 words).
Reviews Broke 12 Days Before Release (Norm is 1.2 Release)
The Vow (2012)'s reviews on average broke 12 days before opening. Norm for this measure is 1.2 hours before. The chart below shows reviews on opening day and the days before and after opening; the left side is earlier and the right side is later. The red bars extending above the horizontal mid-line represent more positive reviews, and the red bars extending below represent more negative reviews. The white space/red bar in the middle is The Vow (2012)'s opening day. Click on any bar for a list of the reviews for that day.
The Vow (2012) (38 reviews, click on bars for reviews)
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