masonfisk Another in, at this point, long line of lunk-headed plots from the mind of Nicholas Sparks becomes another forgettable film based on his assembly line of novels. Hero (ine) w/a troubled past, check. Impossibly attractive couple meet cute somewhere down south, check. Soundtrack that spells everything out underlying every feeling & emotion on screen, check. Safe Haven reminds me of a Southpark episode where they derided Family Guy's plot ideas as being randomly picked by manatees. One wonders if Mr. Sparks has an investment in manatees.

bikelvrgirl This is a great movie. The actors, including those that played the kids, are fabulous. The portrayals of abuse are realistic and really well played, and they really drew me in. It does have a bit of a kooky ending, which I didn't appreciate the first time I saw it, but it didn't bother me after that. (I have now seen this several times.) Definitely a keeper, and a very sweet film.

juneebuggy I thoroughly enjoyed this as I do most Nicholas Sparks adaptions. You basically know what your going to get going in so you can't complain too much. There's star crossed romance, a small North Carolina town, a body off water (usually including a boat ride, a rain storm or at least some kissing in the rain), a demented ex-boyfriend or husband, a kid and/or an older grandma or uncle type person. (Red West in this case) -I remember him from 'Roadhouse', he hasn't aged at all.This story was more of a drama/thriller than most of Sparks' straight out romances and reminded me very much of that Julia Roberts movie 'Sleeping with the Enemy'. The story follows a woman on the run who starts a new life in a small (North Carolina) town and reluctantly falls for a widowed father. It's suspenseful, full of twists and turns, some mystery and a big twist at the end -which after reading the book I'd been curious if they'd even include in the movie because its so random.I enjoyed both Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel, their romance and chemistry was good, not great or epic (The Notebook) but nice, believable.I also really enjoyed David Lyons, who takes on the tasty role of the bad guy here. He's the kind of character you love to hate and it was intriguing watching him slowly unravel into an alcoholic haze in his hunt for Katie.And (despite myself) I liked the ending with the letter "to her." Now that was a real Nicholas Sparks moment. 6/16/15

tinarox731 I liked this movie a lot. One of my favorite Nicholas Sparks' movie adaptations because I love how true it was to the book. Josh Duhamel and Julianne Hough had great chemistry together and Lexie and Josh played very cute kids. When I read the book, I was a little apprehensive of how the movie would turn up because sometimes, the Nicholas Sparks movies are either not true to the book, or are true to the book, but it's just bad ('The Lucky One', 'The Best of Me'), and then there are the Nicholas Sparks movies that altered some of the book scenes to make the movie story better ('A Walk to Remember', 'Dear John') and those movies came out very good. I really like how, when watching, the audience gets a glimpse of Katie's married life and what she did to escape. I also like how, right in the beginning of the movie, the audience sees Katie bursting out of the house frantically; I like how it keeps the audience in suspense of what had happened earlier and what she will do next. The only thing I don't like about this movie is the fact that the daughter's name was changed Alex's daughters name from Kristen to Lexie. Personally, I like it when movies stay true to the book, including keeping the character names the same in the book as in the movie. Other than that though, I really like how this movie turned out. However, even though I really love this movie, I don't think it deserves a perfect score of a 10. I don't know, maybe something about this movie, but I don't think it's a 10. It's definitely a 9, and I wouldn't hesitate to suggest this movie on any night.