Movie Moment: Safe Haven

Few havens feed a hungry heart as well as a house made of candy.  Although perhaps better suited to a movie like Hansel and Gretel, this gumdrop of a graphic struck the right note with me in terms of introducing Safe Haven.  Based on the Nicholas Sparks novel of the same name, this Valentine's Day weekend box office darling held no surprises for me.  Fortunately, the familiarity only deepened its charm.

Katie (Julianne Hough) is running from something.  Saddled with a backstory that is perhaps darker than any other in the Sparks canon, her shadowed past serves as the ideal foil for sleepy Southport, the North Carolina beach hamlet where she takes refuge.  Katie sets tentative roots by renting a cottage, waitressing at the local cafe, and becoming a regular at the general store.  A quaint, near-ramshackle of a place that sells light groceries (and on a good day) paint, it's run by Alex, a widowed father of the hunky, aw-shucks variety whose flirting style is as awkward as Katie's is avoidant.  The fledgling courtship that flowers between them is made even more fragile by Katie's secret.  Idyllic walks and beach scenes continue to be undercut by Katie's flashbacks of her old life in Boston.  Everything about the city is dark, right down to Katie's clothes and hair, serving as a contrast to the breezily bright and beachy Southport where she begins a new chapter.  What lies in the balance is a classic tale of fate and true love.  Hardly groundbreaking stuff, as Sparks-slaying critics are happy to say.  But it's this homespun simplicity that makes Safe Haven so universally poignant and so human.

Indeed, it's a cold customer who doesn't eke out a tear at the end.

Movie Moment: Rock of Ages

Rock of Ages is about rock and roll and the people who love it.  Set in 1987 in an LA bar called the Bourbon Room, its inked and studded players laugh, cry, and dream to the likes of Journey, Styx, Guns N' Roses, Poison, Motley Crue, REO Speedwagon, and so many big-haired others.  Although the movie highlights the seamier side of the era of excess, it is, at its heart, a universal yarn about falling in love and following your dreams.

Sherri (Julianne Hough) is the proverbial good girl who longs to make it big.  To be sure, when the movie opens she is literally "just a small-town girl living in a lonely world on a midnight train going anywhere."  Once on the Sunset Strip, her sundress and sunny disposition set her apart, and her prized suitcase full of albums is stolen almost as soon as she steps off the train.  That's when Drew (Diego Boneta) comes to the rescue.  A barback at the Bourbon, he gets her a job there waiting tables, much to the annoyance of crusty owner Dennis (Alec Baldwin).  She's a singer, he's a singer, and it isn't long before they're making goo-goo eyes in between serving drinks.  Meanwhile, Dennis and his right-hand man and very special friend Lonny (Russell Brand) book larger-than-life and out-of-control rock god Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise) to rescue the Bourbon from bankruptcy.  But Stacee comes with baggage in the form of his conniving manager Paul (Paul Giamatti), idealistic Rolling Stone reporter Constance (Malin Akerman), and the mayor's wife Patty (Catherine Zeta-Jones), who will stop at nothing to expunge him and his ilk from her fair city.  Inevitably, Sherri and Drew are mixed up in the maelstrom and eventually forced to find out what achieving fame really means.

Rock of Ages balances the badass with the sentimental and even the silly, often laughing at its own overblown homage to 1980s extravagance.  The fashion is fabulous, from Patty's prissy pastels to Stacee's most libidinous leather, and the pop culture references keep the camp coming.  But it is, of course, the nonstop rock of power ballads and arena anthems that make you feel as if you're at the concert of the decade.

Movie Moment: Footloose

Oh, Footloose.  That quintessential tale of teenage rebellion.  Who could resist its conflicts between country and city, church and state, and authority and freedom?  Apparently not me because despite not being a huge fan of the original, I found myself queuing up for the remake.

This time breakout star Kenny Wormald fills Kevin Bacon's dancing shoes (sorry, I couldn't help myself) as Ren MacCormack, the city boy who moves to the small southern town of Bomont where dancing is a crime.  Armed with an attitude, Ren goes head to head with the man, who literally happens to be Minister Moore (Dennis Quaid), a key enforcer of the anti-dancing law and the father of Ariel Moore (Julianne Hough), the good girl-gone-bad with whom he's smitten.  Exploding cars compete with even more explosive dance numbers as Ren fights to free Ariel from her race car-driving redneck boyfriend and Bomont from its funk.  The highlight is Wormald's version of Bacon's iconic warehouse dance scene.  Infused with all the righteous teenage indignation of his predecessor, Ren number two busts out gymnastics moves to the rhythm of an appropriately updated iPod.  Anger never looked so good.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the remake is a little edgier than the original.  There's definitely more sex, as well as a deeper exploration of death.  Still, the original retains a melancholy all its own, as well as its signature 1980s appeal.  This is why I think Kevin Bacon was smart to decline making a cameo.  Such a move would have been a little cheesy.  (And speaking of Kevin, did anyone happen to catch that old "Will & Grace" episode where Jack [Sean Hayes] stalks Kevin only to have the star invite him in and signal the Footloose theme song with the clap of his hands?  Hilarious.)

Finally, I can't very well write a post about Footloose without commenting on the dancing.  It was good.  Darned impressive.  And that comes from someone whose dance skills fall somewhere in line with those of "Seinfeld's" Elaine.