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Safe Haven | 2013 | PG-13 | - 6.5.4
Adapted from Nicholas Sparks' novel, a young woman (Julianne Hough) escapes to a small Southern town where she falls in love with a handsome widower (Josh Duhamel). When a dark secret comes back to haunt her, she must face her past. Also with Irene Ziegler, David Lyons, Ric Reitz and Robin Mullins. Directed by Lasse Hallstrom. (1:55)
SEX/NUDITY 6 - A man and a young woman kiss, they continue to kiss as they undress one another (we see the man's bare chest and back and the woman wearing a bra) and the two are then seen in bed with the man thrusting above the young woman (we see his bare chest) and they continue to kiss passionately; the young woman is then seen on top of the man and they kiss while continuing to have sex and they are then shown in bed together with the young woman kissing the man's hand.
► A man and a young woman kiss passionately, they lean against a tree and the man grabs the young woman, holding her against him as they continue to kiss passionately while a man watches them through the rear view mirror of a car and rolls his eyes. A man and a young woman kiss in the middle of a crowd. A man and a young woman dance as they kiss. A man and a young woman kiss. A man and a young woman kiss and hug one another. A man wraps his arms around a young woman. A man kisses and hugs a young woman who is crying. We see a shirtless man (his bare back and chest are visible) in bed next to a young woman and they talk and then hug and kiss briefly.
► A man and a young woman dance, the man wraps his arms around the young woman, lifts her up and their faces are very close; they are interrupted before they kiss by a police siren and lights going off. A man and a woman hold hands. A man and a young woman wearing bathing suits are seen lying on their stomachs next to one another on a beach. We see a man and a young woman almost touching hands and the man's young daughter is obviously happy by seeing their hands almost touch. A young woman lovingly touches a man's arm.
► A man stares longingly at a young woman wearing a bikini. At a beach we see a man and a young woman wearing swimsuits; the man's bare chest and back are visible in his swim trunks and the woman's bare torso and cleavage are shown in her bikini. At a beach, we see a girl wearing a swimsuit, two boys wearing swim trunks (bare backs and chests are visible) and a teen boy's bare back and chest are shown.
VIOLENCE/GORE 5 - Throughout the movie we see a young woman experience a series of flashbacks where a man knocks a glass off a table while shouting at the young woman, and then shoves her against a bookcase and a counter; the young woman tries to fight the man, grabbing a knife and holding it in front of her but the man knocks the knife out of her hand and continues to shout at her, knocks her to the ground, starts to strangle her, the young woman struggles, grabs the knife and stabs the man in the stomach (we see no blood but we hear a slicing sound).
► During a flashback we see a young woman with blood on her hand while holding a bloody knife and she runs past a bloody arm (the rest of the body is hidden behind a wall) and it is implied that the hand belongs to a dead body. During a nightmare we see a man with a knife in his hand, hovering above a young woman and the young woman wakes up with a start.
► A man sprays gasoline on a building (a young girl is inside the building) and when a young woman finds the man holding a lighter she closes the lighter but a spark from a firework ignites the building leaving the girl in the building crying for the young woman: the young woman and the man fight and the man pushes her to the ground and chokes her, a second man (the girl's father) sees the burning building and races a boat across a marina to rescue her by climbing onto a porch roof and breaking through a window to grab her, he is knocked backwards when a flame shoots out the window, he falls to the ground, stands up and instructs the girl to jump into his arms (she too is unharmed): the first man and the young woman wrestle on the ground until the man pulls out a gun and holds it to the young woman's face, we hear the man grunt and then pull the trigger (he is covering her body completely) as the second man that's rescuing his daughter runs to the young woman as she pushes the first man's dead body off her (the young woman is unharmed and we later see a body bag being loaded into an ambulance presumably with the dead man inside).
► A man approaches a young woman from behind and he is crying and obviously upset, he tries to corner the young woman as she continues to back up and he reaches for her but she pulls away; the man then pulls out a gun and shakes it at the young woman, and then points it in the air as the young woman chides the man for being abusive. A man abruptly grabs two young women's arms and spins them around, and then pushes them away.
► A boy falls from a boat dock, hitting his head and body on a boat before falling into the water as several people watch and the boy's father jumps into the water to save him while the boy's young sister cries; a young woman comforts the girl as the man drags the boy out of the water to safety (the boy is unharmed).
► A young woman runs out of a house in a panic and we see her panting and running down a dark street until she pounds on a door and an older woman lets her in. A man grabs a piece of mail from an older woman's mailbox and slams it and a piece of paper against her window, startling the older woman. A man angrily throws a bottle of liquor on the ground in front of a crowd of people and then storms away. A man knocks over two chairs and kicks open a fence as he tries to leave a closed patio restaurant. We see an intoxicated and angry man tucking a gun into the waistband of his pants. A man angrily wads up a piece of paper and throws it. A boy pushes away his father's arm and storms away. A man accidentally bumps into a young woman; the man asks if she is okay (the young woman is unharmed).
► A young woman falls off a bike as she rides down a street; she becomes upset and has a very lucid flashback to a violent memory (please see earlier flashback descriptions).
► A police officer types up a "wanted" poster for a young woman and distributes it country-wide: the poster says that the woman is wanted for murder and we later see a man putting the poster on a corkboard and a second man grabbing the poster and being surprised.
► A man driving drunk (please see the Substance Use category for more details) has to slap his own face to stay awake.
► A woman is scared when she hears an opossum outside her window; she screams and stumbles backwards, breaking the floorboard and her heel is caught in the hole and she is startled again when she sees, through the hole, the opossum run under the house. A man stumbles backwards and breaks the floorboards of a woman's kitchen; he falls but quickly stands up and is unharmed. As a young woman approaches her home, she is startled when she sees another young woman looking through the windows. A young woman awakens in a panic when she hears a car driving next to her house and she quickly locks the doors and gets back in bed, covering herself (we learn it was a man dropping off a present). A young woman tells a man that she is afraid of her estranged husband because he is a police officer. A young woman flinches at the sound of steam hissing from an espresso machine causing her and another woman to laugh. A man and a young woman are startled by a roll of thunder.
► We see a police officer outside a bus stop as he aggressively asks another man if he recognizes a woman in a photograph (we also see a flash of red and blue lights). A police officer stands in front of a bus, preventing it from driving and then enters the bus while searching people. A police officer chides another officer, saying that a man in jail is guilty no matter what, and then shouts angrily at the other man. A man shouts at his son to stay on a boat deck. A man shouts at a boy (his son) for not being cooperative. An older woman scolds a police officer for bothering her. A man is seen prying open a window in an older woman's house and he is then seen rifling through papers on the woman's desk.
► A woman makes idle conversation with a young woman about how a man's wife had died of cancer and the man took his wife's death very hard. A man discusses his wife's death with a young woman. A boy tells his father that he is still upset that his mother died. A man discusses in abstract about the death of his wife, with a young woman. A young woman jokes to another young woman that a man's gift "wasn't a kidney." An older woman tells a man that a cup of coffee tastes "like mud." A man jokes with another man and the man's young son that they are going to set off fireworks and "blow stuff up and be men."
► We see a man enter what appears to be a crime scene where there is a pool of dried blood on the floor (it looks like a red stain) and broken glass is seen on the floor. A man examines a burnt-out building, with a crying boy and he comforts the boy (his son). We see a man, handcuffed, being walked into a police station by a police officer.
► We see a boy catch a fish (the fish is seen hanging from the line but no blood is visible) the boy then releases the fish. A woman is seen spearing a fish and we see her pick it up (no blood is visible).
LANGUAGE 4 - 6 scatological terms (1 mild), 3 mild obscenities, name-calling (stupid), exclamations (shut up), 1 religious profanity, 9 religious exclamations.
SUBSTANCE USE - A man drinks liquor from a water bottle throughout the movie and it is implied that the man is operating at a near-intoxicated level through the entire movie and is suspended from his job when another man sniffs the water bottle, a man pours himself a tall glass of liquor and he takes a sip and later the man is shown holding the near-empty glass (it is implied that the man had blacked out), a man is seen pouring vodka into a water bottle and drinking from it, a man drinks liquor as he drives a car and he is obviously intoxicated, a man shouts at a young woman when he believes she is trying to cut him off from drinking more wine (she eventually pours him additional wine), we see a man loading beers into a cooler, and a man and a young woman are shown with wine on their dinner table.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Alcoholism, domestic violence, self-defense from spousal battery, making a new life, death of a loved one, death of a parent, finding love, trust.
MESSAGE - Finding love in a relationship can be difficult after being involved in an abusive marriage.
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CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
Afraid - 4.5.5
You Gotta Believe - 2.3.3
The Forge - 1.1.1
City of Dreams - 5.8.7
The Crow - 6.9.8
Blink Twice - 6.7.10
The Union - 3.5.5
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