Plot
Paige Collins and her husband Leo come out of a movie theater on a snowy evening. On their way home, at a stop sign, Paige unbuckles her seatbelt to lean over and kiss Leo. At that very moment, a salt truck rams their car from behind and Paige crashes through the windshield.
Both of them are rushed to hospital, and as Leo, in a voice-over, talks about how "moments of impact help in finding who we are," his relationship with Paige is explored; their courtship, engagement, and wedding at the Art Institute of Chicago interwoven with the present. Paige is put into an induced coma but, upon regaining consciousness, discovers she has lost all of her memories. Paige's parents, Bill and Rita Thornton, learn about this and visit her, meeting Leo for the first time.
Paige does not understand how Leo could be married to her, yet have not met her own parents. She finds it even stranger that he does not know either. Nor does Paige understand why she left law school, broke off ann engagement with her previous fiancé, Jeremy, and lost contact with her family and friends. Paige decides to uncover evidence of her relationship with Leo, so he plays her a voice message as proof. Paige, against the idea of moving back in with her parents, decides to return to Leo, hoping it will help her regain her lost memories. She is welcomed home with a surprise party thrown by her friends, but as she is not able to recall any of them, Paige feels overwhelmed.
The next day, Paige ventures out to a café she regularly attended but loses the way back. Paige calls Rita but, upon returning to Leo, dresses and behaves differently. That evening, both Bill and Rita invite Leo and Paige to dinner; later, Paige's sister Gwen and her fiancé invite them out to a bar. Leo comes to feel that he doesn't fit in with Paige's family. Paige later meets Jeremy again at the bar. Realizing that she is becoming infatuated with Jeremy, Leo persists in his attempts to help her regain her lost memory; Paige secretly meets Jeremy at his office despite not knowing the reason for their broken engagement. When Paige asks him about it, his answer is ambiguous; he is still clearly attracted to her. While Leo gives Paige a tour of her own studio, she suddenly lashes out at him. With Gwen's wedding approaching, Paige decides to stay with her parents. Though asking Paige out on a date and spending the night her, Leo's relationship is further strained when Bill attempts to persuade him into divorcing her, causing Leo to attack Jeremy. Paige rejoins law school and a heartbroken Leo reaches an epiphany that her memory may never return.
At a floral store, Paige meets Diane, an old friend who is unaware of Paige's amnesia. It's revealed that Diane had an adulterous affair with Bill, thus explaining why Paige has been estranged from her family. When Paige angrily confronts her mother about this, Rita tells Paige that she decided to stay with Bill for all the things he had done right instead of leaving him for one transgression. Reuniting with Leo, Paige learns that he wanted to earn her love instead of driving her away from her family. While in class, Paige starts to take up sketching as an interest. Despite Bill's misgivings about quitting law school, Paige reassures him that she will always be his daughter no matter what. Paige continues her interest in art, eventually returning to sculpting and drawing. Though Jeremy confesses he broke up with his girlfriend in hopes of winning her back, Paige turns him down, stating that she needs to know what life would be like without him.
As the seasons change, Leo discusses his philosophy about "moments of impact," whose potential for change has ripple effects far beyond what can be predicted. Back in her room, Paige finds a menu card on which she had written her wedding vows. She later meets Leo at the cafe and, despite admitting the end of their relationship, agree to have dinner together; they walk off hand in hand.
Release
Critical response
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 31% based on 134 reviews and an average rating of 4.95/10. The site's consensus reads, "Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams do their best with what they're given, but The Vow is too shallow and familiar to satisfy the discriminating date-night filmgoer." [17] On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating to reviews, the film received an average score of 43 out of 100 based on 28 critics, which indicates "mixed or average reviews." [18]
Emma Dibdin from Total Film gave the film a three-star rating out of five, commenting, "There's an essential sweetness at work here, thanks partly to McAdams and partly to an unusually chaste love story that ultimately keeps melodrama at bay." [19] Empire critic Helen O'Hara gave the film a three stars rating out of five, also. She found McAdams "excellent" and Tatum "surprisingly heartbreaking" and concluded, "The few weaknesses in the plot can be overlooked as The Vow makes for a wonderful – if a bit teary – romance that is brilliantly acted." [20] The Washington Post 's Stephanie Merry wrote, "It's a shame things are so black and white because the movie has more promise – and more laughs – than trailers suggest." She added "Tatum, while a bit deficient in the dramatic acting department, delivers some memorable quips. He and McAdams also have chemistry." [21]
Giving the film 2.5 stars out of 4, Roger Ebert from the Chicago Sun-Times found it "pleasant enough as a date movie, but that's all." [22] USA Today wrote, "It may appeal to the most rabid fans of tearjerk romances like The Notebook, but it's a hard-to-swallow, maudlin tale." [23] Betsy Sharkey, a film critic from the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Despite the sweet story, this is a movie that leaves you wanting more. To care more, to cry more, to love more." [24] ReelViews' James Berardinelli was very negative about the film. He wrote, "With its would-be crowd-pleasing contrivances and rote adherence to formula, [this film] offers almost no redeeming characteristics. [...] This is for young women what Transformers is for young men." He concluded by describing the film as a "heartless, soulless product." [25]
Box office
The Vow debuted at #1 in its opening weekend, with $15.4 million on opening day and $41.2 million over the weekend. [26] On the Valentine's Day, it grossed $11.6 million, breaking Hitch 's record $7.5 million for the highest-grossing mid-week Valentine's Day. [27] That record would be surpassed by Bob Marley: One Love in 2024 with $14 million. [28] The film also earned around $9.7 million internationally that weekend.
On the weekend lasting from February 24–26, The Vow became the first film of 2012 in North America to cross the $100 million mark, and the third film to cross the $100 million mark worldwide behind Underworld: Awakening and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island . [29] The film grossed $125 million in North America and $71.1 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $196.1 million. [2] It is the eighth highest-grossing romantic drama film since 1980. [6]
