A young woman goes on the run following a violent incident. Changing her hair colour and calling herself Katie, she arrives at a small seaside town where she soon makes friends, including a handsome young man, conveniently widowed with two young children. However, a police officer is on her trail...

What we have here is a romance, cross-pollinated with a mystery about Katie's backstory and a suspense thriller about the police officer who is after her, coupled with a couple of other cross-genre oddments (the young son who can't let go of his mother, will he bond with Katie or reject her, and so on). I am lucky: I have not read the book on which this film is based, nor have I seen Sleeping With The Enemy (on account of my cordial dislike of the vastly overrated Julia Roberts) so, for me, this movie was not totally devoid of surprises. Having said that, I didn't find too much here to make my jaw drop.

The main strength of the film is Julianne Hough as Katie. This is the third film I have seen her in, and she is both easy on the eye and able to project an innate likability. The part of Katie stretches her a little more than Footloose and Rock Of Ages did, and she does well enough. Josh Duhamel as sensitive and hunky widower Alex is sensitive and hunky, David Lyons as nemesis Tierney is satisfactorily over the top in a caricature part, and Mimi Kirkland as moppet Lexie walks away on diminutive legs with every scene she is in.

This is mostly a nice film - overflowing with niceness in fact which, in some quarters, might be regarded as a criticism - leavened with a touch of nastiness. I liked it, but was under no illusions that it was anything other than a potboiler (with a rather daft and unnecessary twist at the end).

Lasse Hallstrom has been responsible for some great films ('My Life as a Dog' being a personal favourite) and there are some good Nicholas Sparks (not a bad writer) adaptations (such as 'The Notebook' though film adaptations are very variable). With such a good book, one of Sparks' most interesting, and a great idea, 'Safe Haven' had potential to work.

Sadly, found, as much as it pains me to say it, found 'Safe Haven' to be one of Hallstrom's weaker films. As well as one of the weaker adaptations of Sparks' work. That it is a poor adaptation of the book, which is far more intense and emotional and with character motivations and situations clearer, is actually while something of a problem not as big a problem as how 'Safe Haven' fares on its own terms. There is far more to the problem than it being a poor book adaptation. By all means on its own 'Safe Haven' is not a terrible film, far from it. It's just that it is not a great film either, and it should have been considering its potential.

Commencing with 'Save Haven's' strengths, it looks good. Beautifully filmed and with suitably idyllic locations. It begins intriguingly and has a suspenseful climax, although it feels like it belongs elsewhere. Nice soundtrack too.

Of the performances, bubbly Mimi Kirkland, charming and hunky Josh Duhamel and especially a very creepy David Lyons fare best. Cobie Smulders does decently in the limited screen time she has. The big halfway through twist was a shocker.

However, the romantic element to the story is pure formula and while the romantic chemistry has charm it lacks emotional connection. It would have helped if Julianne Hough gave a stronger performance than the anaemic one she gave. The character of Josh irritates and his change of heart is too out of the blue and rings false. Hallstrom's direction is fairly paint by numbers, not much of his style in sight here, somehow it doesn't feel like a Hallstrom film.

The script is both bland and over-egged and the story suffers from a general lack of emotion and charm, the suspenseful climax is an exception. The overlength, due to that the story is so slight, is a further issue. The flashback would have fared better if there was more of an insanity factor to Kevin's character and if the film showed the full effects and intensity of domestic violence. The final twist doesn't work, on paper it sort of does, executed in this film it's daft and manipulative and felt tacked on. Wanted genuinely to be moved by the film and the ending, but was left cold and there were a few scenes like Alex's reaction to the flyer that came over as silly.

In summary, average but watchable. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Julianne Hough is escaping from the cops, and lands in Southport, North Carolina. She falls for widower Josh Duhamel with his two kids. Cobie Smulders is a mysterious neighbor.

Before the final Nicholas Sparks twist becomes so obvious, I was going to rail on all the haters. I was going to nail them for hating a traditional romance. The movie is going well with a by-the-book romance with a twist of 'Sleeping with the Enemy' but it doesn't last. The first hint of trouble starts with David Lyons' overacting of a crazed ex. It's as if he comes from a different genre. Is he in a horror movie? Then the final twist really overcomplicated this. It doesn't need that.