AT the end of Michael Sucsy’s debut feature, there’s a title saying that it’s based on real characters now married with two kids.

After a car accident leaves her in a coma for five years, Paige (Rachel McAdams), four years married to Leo (Channing Tatum) unbeknown to her parents, surfaces with no memory of the accident or life with Leo. From that point, “The Vow” declines from a comfortable relationship story into a chick-flick that may or (more probably) may not reflect how the real-life couple dealt with rehabilitating the relationship, Paige’s bossy parents (Sam Neill and Jessica Lange) and the boyfriend she ditched when she met Leo.

Daddy wants Paige to divorce Leo and return to law school. Mummy is suppressing a family secret. Paige wants to resume being a sculptor and complete the commission she was working on before the accident.  Leo just wants the girl he loves back in his life and bed.

I’ve never read a Mills and Boon “novel” but from what I’ve heard, “The Vow” might easily have come from that stable. The screenplay misses opportunities to establish credibility. Its treatment of issues is flaccid. In life, people ask questions and expect answers. Screenplays, to be effective, should do the same. This one instead erects contrivances to sustain it and the effect is disappointing.

At Greater Union