Safe Haven movie review & film summary (2013)

Flashing a friendly smile and hopping around in short-shorts for much of the film, Julianne Hough is Katie, a Boston native who arrives in an idyllic town in North Carolina and is welcomed with open arms. She gets a job at the wildly popular local fish house, buys a fantastic fixer-upper cabin nestled deep in the woods and strikes up a friendship-and-maybe-more with the conveniently widowed Alex (Josh Duhamel). He has a beyond-precious daughter, a mildly grumpy son who's old enough to remember his dead mom and a delightfully crusty uncle whose only role in life is to lurk in the background, making sure Alex opens his heart to the possibility of romance. This Alex is some catch. He'd be the ultimate prize on "The Bachelor."

Duhamel and Hough have a lovely and natural chemistry, spending time at the beach, making out in the moonlight and starring in Musical Interludes. But Katie is haunted by a past in Boston that includes a violent encounter that left somebody in a pool of blood on a dining room floor. David Lyons is chillingly effective as a cop who at first seems dogged and then becomes consumed with tracking down Katie.

"Safe Haven" isn't much for subtlety and it's more than a little reminiscent of the Julia Roberts flick "Sleeping with the Enemy." But for 90 percent of the journey, I was on the verge of giving it a mild recommendation or at least saying this was a solid and perfectly acceptable Valentine's Day week movie for those in the mood for some good old-fashioned, great-looking-couple-gets-caught-in-the-rain romance.

And then that thing happens at the very end, and instead of giving "Safe Haven" an extra layer of heart and soul, it had me saying, "Wait, WHAT?" all the way through the closing credits and right up to this very moment. I almost want you to see this movie so we can compare notes and you can tell me if you were as flummoxed — that's right, flummoxed — as I was.