‘Safe Haven’ Is Hollywood’s Latest Valentine’s Day Massacre

Peter Travers directs a big ol' "Damn you!" at Hollywood and Valentine's Day, because now February 14th marks the inevitable release of another film adaptation from the Nicholas Sparks canon. This year's offender is Safe Haven, which Travers calls "a torture to sit through." The movie stars Julianne Hough as a woman on the run from a psychopath. She ends up in a small town in North Carolina, where she meets and falls in love with a widower and father of two children played by Josh Duhamel. Travers runs down a list of the film's most egregious crimes, including Hough's endlessly perky performance, the fake suspense and disgusting dialog – there are even scenes with characters who aren't really there, à la The Sixth Sense. "This is so Hollywood-fake that you can't believe it!" decries Travers.