Reese Witherspoon and Rachel McAdams have become ever so slightly interchangeable in our minds, but don't confused this McAdams film with that one where Witherspoon plays a disgruntled ghost flirting with Mark Ruffalo. Although it's another coma-based romance (less rapey than it sounds), The Vow is actually based on a true story, which gives it a schmaltz license that even a cynic can't dump too heavily on.

First things first, we don't really get the deal with Channing Tatum. From where we're looking, he seems to be Tom Hardy with less personality but more neck. If we were Rachel McAdams waking out of a coma only to discover we were married to him, we'd be slightly surprised. Yes, that's the plot - Rachel McAdams' Paige is put in a coma by a car accident which results in her not remembering her husband, Channing Tatum's Leo.

We should point out that it's only loosely based on a real life story - we're not sure if the actual woman ended up crashing head first through a windscreen because she took her seat belt off so she could have sex at a traffic junction in the snow (bit weird), but the general true element does make what could be just another romantic drama more thought provoking... What would you do if you didn't recognise the guy telling you he was your husband? Run a mile/stay? We guess it all depends on your feelings about Channing Tatum. 

For Leo, the entire battle to win Paige's heart all over again is made more challenging by the fact that her parents don't like him. You see, he's from the wrong side of the tracks (cue dead parents, warehouse style living arrangement and job in the music industry, something he's not very unconvincing at), whereas she's a recovering poshie who turned to a more bohemian way of living in only more recent years. Unfortunately her knock on the head has put her back to a period pre-character transformation, meaning she thinks she's a trainee lawyer engaged to a smug fellow name Jeremy. Good lord, Leo is going to have his work cut out. 

Leo tries and he tries - he takes her to her favourite cafes for a game of 'chocolate roulettes' (less fun than it sounds), they go for a swim in a lake in their underwear, he recites a terrible monologue about Radiohead. It seems to be going well, but she just CANNOT for the life of her remember loving him. Interestingly, there's no huge triumph in the face of adversity. Actually, it stays true to the real life ending, but there's still a definite Hollywood moral (happiness must come from within) which makes it all very nice without being too convenient. A bit like 127 Hours, actually. Except obviously nothing like it.

BTW, imagine if Rachel McAdams had a head trauma and woke up from a coma thinking it was five years ago when she was going out with Ryan Gosling instead of Michael Sheen.LOL at being told the truth.