Movie review: ‘Safe Haven’

Movie review: ‘Safe Haven’

A woman and a widower are drawn together in a sleepy North Carolina town. Director: Lasse Hallström (1:56). PG-13. Area theaters.

Well timed for Valentine’s Day, this film based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks (“The Notebook,” “The Lucky One,” “Dear John”) is another take on fateful love amid rustic settings in a Southern coastal burg. Yet “Safe Haven” begins as off-kilter suspense, shot with jagged rough cuts and some mystery thrown in. But don’t despair. Boat rides, hand-written letters and declarations of love are on the horizon.

Julianne Hough plays Katie, a mysterious â€" but spunky â€" woman who picks a small town in North Carolina at random to begin her life anew. She rents a rustic cabin deep in the woods to hide from the world, meeting the endearing grade-schooler Lexie (Mimi Kirkland) at the town’s general store.

Lexie’s dad, Alex (Josh Duhamel, whose admirable torso should get a co-starring credit), also notices Katie, pursuing her arduously yet clumsily. Katie, however, after experiencing or perhaps causing some heinous crime in the past, is a tough nut to crack.

The suspense â€" rare in a Sparks story â€" actually enhances the loss-of-boundaries fear some have when beginning a relationship, while heightening the dramatic stakes.

Duhamel is goofy and harmless, but unlike Ryan Gosling in “Notebook,” adds no texture or subtlety. Hough (“Footloose”), while photogenic, is similarly bland.

Director Lasse Hallström (“Chocolat”) films the mystery in a disjointed and harrowing way. The problem is that most of the pieces to the shoddy puzzle ultimately don’t fit, making things less believable and successful. There’s too much of a detour from the romance, which is the safe part of the story â€" and what most of the audience will cling to.