The Vow Pure Schlock

In The Vow, Rachel McAdams plays a woman who must learn to love her husband again after amnesia wipes her memory. It's no surprise it was released ahead of Valentine's Day: It's pure mushiness, critics say.

• In the New York Daily News, Elizabeth Weitzman calls the film a "down-the-middle, by-the-numbers fantasy, in which no one is too quirky or interesting or challenging in any way." Still, "there’s no shortage of viewers ready to embrace an old-fashioned, guilty-pleasure romance."

• Claudia Puig agrees in USA Today, saying The Vow "may appeal to the most rabid fans of tearjerk romances like The Notebook, but it's a hard-to-swallow, maudlin tale. Nearly every move feels calculated to wring tears or dopey grins."
• AO Scott is even less forgiving, slamming the film's "threadbare setting and the paper-thin plot" in the New York Times. "Is this a romance about neurological impairment or a neurologically impaired romance?"
• But McAdams "does a fine job in a tricky role," writes Chris Knight in the Vancouver Sun. She's forced to "tie a knot of believable chemistry with her co-star and then undo it again."

(More Rachel McAdams stories.)