SWOK 313.01
2 April, 2018
Safe Haven
Throughout my teenage years I grew up with a mother, and two sisters who are both 13
months older than me. One thing I learned very early that this meant little to no say as to what
got put on the TV during the day or what movies we watched as a family at night. At the time I
remember it bothering me, but looking back on it made me realize what life lessons were
portrayed in most of these movies. The film I decided to choose to write about is Safe Haven.
Written originally as a book by Nicolas Sparks in 2010, Lasse Hallstrom directed it into a movie
and released it on February 14th, 2013. The film was produced by Marty Bowen, Chad Freet,
Wyck Godfrey, and Ryan Kavanaugh and stared Julianne Hough, Josh Duhamel and Cobie
Amulders.
Safe Haven is a romantic film that does an excellent job of incorporating violence and
abuse, while maintaining a love story everyone wants to watch. The Movie starts off in Boston
Massachusetts where the main character Kate begins arguing with her then husband and police
officer, Kevin. The scene is heavy, showing Kevin abusing Kate physically by throwing glass at
her, pushing her, and chocking her. The scene escalates to the point of Kate grabbing a knife and
stabbing Kevin to get away. Bloody, beaten, and bruised, Kate runs to her neighbor’s house and
undergoes a transformation. She cuts her hair extremely short, puts on old baggy clothes, and
takes off for the bus station. Knowing she has to get far away from this man she gets on a bus
headed for Atlanta Georgia and never looks back. Hours into the trip the bus makes a rest stop in
a small port town called Southport. At the stop, Kate walks into the convenience store and sees
the owner, Josh, and his two children. The short interaction and home feel of the place was
enough to make Kate purposefully miss her bus and call Southport her new home.
After buying a house, getting a job, and falling in love with the widowed father Josh,
Kate realizes a huge problem when she sees wanted posters for the Murder of a man with her
face on them. Seeing this made Kate realize that not only is her ex still looking for her, but he
knows around where she is. Later, Josh finds out that she is wanted and it causes fallout in their
love. Everything unfolds to the point where Kevin finally locates where Kate is and who her new
man is. He shows up to Josh’s store and home pouring gasoline threatening to burn the place to
the ground. Kate finally approaches her ex and pretends to give in and offer to go back home
with him. While he’s caught off guard, Kate then pushes him into the water to avoid burning the
house down. Unfortunately for Josh, this all took place on the 4th of July and a firework spark
