Nobody goes into a romantic drama featuring two impossibly beautiful stars in the lead roles expecting awards-caliber entertainment; sometimes, you just want to get those tissues at the ready and have a saccharine love story tug at your heartstrings, which can hit home even harder if the tale is based on a true-story.
That’s more than likely why 2012’s weepy The Vow went on to land almost $200 million at the box office on a $30 million budget, despite reviews that could very generously be described as passable at best. A dramatization of what happened to Kim and Krickitt Carpenter, Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams fill the surrogate parts of Leo and Paige Collins.
The couple are newlyweds, but a car accident ends with Paige in a coma. She survives, but when she awakes she’s got no idea who the man at her bedside is. Undeterred, Leo sets out to make her fall in love with him all over again, so that their happy life can be rebuilt to what it was before tragedy struck.
A 31% Rotten Tomatoes rating is offset by an audience score that’s over twice as high at 63%, which goes some way to explaining why The Vow has suddenly exploded into life on streaming. As per FlixPatrol, it’s rocketed straight into the Top 20 out of nowhere, presumably providing ideal date night fodder for couples everywhere.