Safe Haven
Relativity Media | Release Date: February 14, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
34
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
1
Mixed:
19
Negative:
13
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Miami HeraldConnie OgleFeb 14, 2013
A sentimental romantic thriller. But it’s a well-made sentimental romantic thriller, and that makes all the difference. Read full review
60
EmpireAnna SmithFeb 25, 2013
"Salmon Fishing In The Yemen" and "Chocolat" man Hallström is an old pro at navigating this kind of undemandingly dramatic yarn and does a pretty fine job with Sparks' story. Read full review
60
VarietyJustin ChangFeb 13, 2013
Safe Haven offers an unsurprising but not unsatisfying tour through recognizable Sparkville terrain. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerFeb 14, 2013
Safe Haven is a species of Gothic chick flick. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedFeb 20, 2013
This one blends the scented candles of a daytime soap with the tamer aspects of a middling thriller. Some folks will bring Kleenex. Others will need NoDoz. Read full review
50
TimeMary PolsFeb 16, 2013
The man (Sparks) is a cultural magpie, capable of borrowing from a 1991 Julia Roberts flick and M. Night Shyamalan in one fell swoop. He’ll never get an award for originality, but when it comes to rehashing formula and pleasing his audience, the man is a master. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniFeb 14, 2013
Not one of Sparks' best flicks (The Notebook is quite good) Safe Haven is marred by film cliches. It has an alarming number of throwaway montage sequences. Read full review
50
New York PostSara StewartFeb 13, 2013
Adapting the author’s cornball formula for a second time around is once-ambitious director Lasse Hallström (“Dear John”), who delivers a cinematic valentine you’ll be reasonably content to watch on a flight in a year or so. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigFeb 13, 2013
The picture-postcard location of Southport, N.C., is the film's strong suit. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsFeb 13, 2013
Hallstrom (“Chocolat”) makes the mishmash palatable, and romance mainstay Duhamel provides some sweet-and-salty charm, but there’s not much they can do with Sparks’ canned dialogue and Hough’s undercooked acting. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubFeb 13, 2013
It's Valentine's Day! Unrealistic romantic expectations are in the air! And Safe Haven does the unrealistic romance thing pretty well. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterStephen FarberFeb 13, 2013
A thriller element that has not been present in earlier Sparks movies is designed to draw reluctant male viewers to see the picture, but they won’t respond with the same enthusiasm as his core audience of woozy romantics. Read full review
50
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreFeb 13, 2013
Hallestrom and his screenwriters may be stuck with Sparks’ formula, but they take advantage of the geography, the leads and a couple of homespun supporting players – Robin Mullens is a wonderfully folksy owner of the seaside seafood shack. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsFeb 13, 2013
I like Duhamel, and in her first straight-up dramatic role Hough does well enough, though her singing and/dancing career thus far has trained her to oversell, as opposed to sell, as opposed to act naturally. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliFeb 13, 2013
Reading a Sparks novel allows one's imagination to enter the equation. Watching one of his stories adapted on screen has exactly the opposite effect: it neuters the imagination. This is soap opera, pure and simple. Read full review
40
Total FilmEmma DibdinFeb 22, 2013
By the numbers even by Sparks’ standards. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriFeb 15, 2013
The movie’s not all bad. There’s palpable chemistry between Duhamel and Hough. The former particularly seems well-suited to this sort of thing: He has just the right amount of grizzled charm to be one of those wounded hunks Sparks likes so much. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith PhippsFeb 14, 2013
Any residual charm evaporates when the third-act dramatics start piling up and a must-be-seen-to-be-believed final twist redefines the word shameless, even by Sparksville standards. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsMiriam BaleFeb 13, 2013
Duhamel is goofy and harmless, but unlike Ryan Gosling in “Notebook,” adds no texture or subtlety. Hough (“Footloose”), while photogenic, is similarly bland. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghFeb 13, 2013
Safe Haven plays out less like a love story than it does a two-hour audition tape Julianne Hough commissioned to land a lucrative lip-gloss-modeling contract. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenFeb 13, 2013
It’s hard to argue with the title here – Safe Haven, indeed. This is all about safety in the Hollywood workplace. Why make a movie when making a Hallmark-card-with-dialogue is so much less risky? Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTom RussoFeb 13, 2013
A movie that passably ambles along in generic-melodrama mode before finally insulting audience intelligence one time too many. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperFeb 13, 2013
If it can be said movies have personalities, I give you three words to sum up the basic core identity of Safe Haven: Bat. Bleep. Crazy. Read full review
37
Washington PostAnn HornadayFeb 14, 2013
Safe Haven is one of those Valentine’s Day confections that satisfy your sweet tooth until you get to their weird, off-putting center. The problem with movies is that you can’t put them back in the box. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasFeb 13, 2013
The cutaways to this cop-on-the-edge plot are jarring and lacking in conviction, and when the whole tortured mess comes together in a twist-filled third act, Safe Haven becomes a full-blown calamity. Read full review
30
Village VoiceMelissa AndersonFeb 14, 2013
Hough emits all the charisma of a personal assistant. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesFeb 13, 2013
The leads project a sunny patina of wholesomeness and share marvelous tans, but beyond that, it’s a shrugging love match. Read full review
30
The New York TimesStephen HoldenFeb 13, 2013
The weakest parts of Safe Haven are its action sequences, in which the illusion of reality is shattered by ham-handed editing, garish special effects and comic-book dialogue. Read full review
25
Film.comLaremy LegelFeb 26, 2013
Even when compared against other films that have been adapted from Nicholas Sparks novels, Safe Haven is terrible. Read full review
20
The GuardianPeter BradshawMar 2, 2013
As ever with a Sparks story, the action takes place in a sugary vision of small-town America that does not correspond with the real world at any point. Read full review
20
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyFeb 13, 2013
This sloppy sentimental journey is long on beauty shots, short on depth and seriously intent on tugging your heartstrings. Indeed, it demands you reach for those tissues. Sob. Read full review
12
Slant MagazineChris CabinFeb 13, 2013
It goes without saying that Safe Haven is the whitest thing offered up for public consumption in the three days since Mumford & Sons won the Grammy for Album of the Year. Read full review
0
Rolling StonePeter TraversFeb 14, 2013
I hate Safe Haven. It's a terrible thing to do to your Valentine. Read full review
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