Finally, a love story that we can believe in… “The Vow”

Starring: Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum

Directed by Michael Sucsy

Grade: B

Finally, a love story that we can believe in.

Because this time it’s true — well, at least mostly. “The Vow,” a story about a wife with amnesia and her faithful husband who helps her remember their marriage.

The entertaining and idealistic chick flick is based on the real life stories of Kim and Krickitt Carpenter. In 1993, shortly after marrying, the couple got into a car accident that caused Krickitt forgot the previous 18 months of her life, including Kim. Together they worked through it and wrote the book that the movie is based on.

In the movie, Paige and Leo (McAdams and Tatum, respectively), find themselves in a similar situation. And just as Krickitt did, Paige works to remain with Leo based on the “vow” she made to him.

Sound familiar? Indeed, Rachel McAdams starred in the strikingly similar movie, “The Notebook,” in 2004. But “The Vow” has a realness and humor to assure that it isn’t quite the same kind of overwrought love story.

In a beginning that seems to promise every rom-com cliche, the film opens with highlights of Paige and Leo’s romance. The sickeningly sweet hand-holding and long gazes are cut short with the film’s “moment of impact.” And suddenly, it gets very real.

After a slow-motion crash scene, Paige wakes up from a coma to find that she cannot recall the past five years, much less her and Leo’s 18-month relationship.

She shoves the conflict in our faces when she answers her husband’s question, “You know who I am right?” with a convinced, “Yeah, you’re my doctor.” From here, the film begins to resist the melodramatic speeches of most romance and heads in a more believable direction.

Paige’s unchecked frankness is recurring, and McAdams’ delivery is often pretty funny — an aspect of “The Vow” that saves us from the worn-out love confessions of this genre. When confronted with the decision of living with her stranger-husband or the familiar parents who had been estranged during the blank years of her life, she states, “I married him. It must have been for some reason.”

The film’s plot is complex but painfully predictable. Despite the addition of hindering parents and the re-emergence of Paige’s ex-fiancé, the twists and turns all resolve in an obvious way.

Though the trailers built up the love story, they didn’t reveal all the family issues and conflicts that keep the film rooted firmly in something real. Whether or not Kim and Krickitt faced the same challenges, the film does a decent job avoiding overlooking the other complications that might arise from such a trauma.

By the film’s end, despite a predictable finish — the couple did write a book together after all — the audience shouldn’t be surprised to leave the theater with tear-filled eyes.