Posted on May 11, 2012 at 6:13 pm
Note the revised time: Channing Tatum will be doing a live interactive online webcam chat with his fans to discuss “The Vow” on May 13th at 6:00 pm Eastern/3 pm Pacific. Tatum is having quite a year with this film, “21 Jump Street,” and the upcoming “Magic Mike,” based on his real-life experiences as a stripper.
Posted on May 5, 2012 at 8:00 am
“The Vow,” starring Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams, is based on the real-life love story of Kim and Krickett Carpenter, who had to start all over again when she lost her memory in a car accident shortly after their wedding. The DVD
Channing Tatum will be doing an online chat with his fans to support the DVD release on May 11th at noon Eastern/3PM Pacific.
Posted on February 14, 2012 at 8:00 am
“The Vow,” starring Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams, is based on the real-life story of Kim and Krickett Carpenter, who wrote a book about their experience after a traumatic brain injury shortly after their wedding erased all of Krickett’s memory of the previous 18 months. She did not remember being married and she did not remember even having met her husband. He had to make her fall in love with him all over again. Kim Carpenter spoke to me about their book, The Vow: The True Events that Inspired the Movie
What do you think of the movie?
We enjoyed it! Obviously, there’s some artistic license that isn’t true to the entire story. Trying to tell a story of 20 years in 103 minutes is extremely challenging. They gravitate toward the emotion of the audience but it is very inspiring which is what we hope the real message will be, the real impact on the viewer. 
Our biggest concern is that my wife’s parents are very devout in their faith and have been happily married for over 50 years. Between my parents and Krickett’s parents there’s over 100 anniversaries that have been celebrated. So the portrayal of her parents was not like our story. But Rachel and Channing did an outstanding job in studying us, our behavior, our habits, interviews we’ve done over the years. And I don’t think you could come up with better chemistry between two actors. They created a true sense of relationship on the silver screen, so many similarities to us and to the events we went through. Our heart is in our book. The end of the movie draws people to want to know more and the people who read the book are drawn to wanting to see the movie.
Did Krickett move back in with her parents as the character does in the movie? Did you ever give up?
Yes, they felt it was in her best interests at the time and I went home to try to achieve some sense of normalcy but there was never any separation. She was in a rehab facility in her home town. We never gave up on one another. She had every right to; she had no recollection of me, meeting me, dating me, nothing. At my weakest and lowest point I did have the feeling that this can’t work. As Channing portrayed in the film, I was at that point. I thought, “If that’s going to be the case, I’m going to stay with her until first she can take care of herself and have a good quality of life and second that she can be with it enough to look me in the eye and tell me it just wasn’t going to happen.” But the Lord had different ideas about this. Our faith is very important to us and the overall experience is something we will always cherish. It taught us that the little things don’t matter. It made us different people.
One thing that was accurate in the movie is that first time you fell in love it was immediate but the second time it had to build up slowly over a long period of time. What was that like?
Comas are depicted in a strange way in Hollywood. It’s a level of consciousness. You can walk and talk and still be charted as being in a coma. That process was drawn out. To be quite honest, it took more than three years. We had to accept that we needed a new beginning, a start over. There’s not going to be any memory. There’s not going to be any recovery in that area. So let’s move on and build new memories and make new memories rather than being obsessed with trying to bring back what was.
So you started from the beginning?
We dated again. We got engaged again on Valentine’s day of 1996 and on May 25 of that year we had a second wedding.
What do your children think of your story?
To have a book written that readers see all over the world is awesome for us. To have a movie made about us because we maintained our vows is extraordinary. But our children are the true blessings of our vows. If we had not stayed together, they would have never had a chance at life. I’m excited about it all but I’m especially excited that our children get to share this experience, travel, meet the director, doing interviews.
Parents in a family structure spend their lives trying to teach their kids to do the right thing and to be honest. It’s one thing to listen to a parent’s lecture about it and another thing to use it as a lesson for them to learn that will forever be carried on in their life and that’s priceless. They are seeing the rewards of doing the right thing. It’s unfortunate that in our society doing the things you said you would do is unusual enough to make a movie about it. But we are glad the world has grasped onto the story. “Unbelievable” and “amazing” are the words we hear but we just did what we said we would do. In wedding ceremonies, they say “‘Til death do you part,” and 50 years ago that was what it meant, the death of your soulmate. But today’s society accepts the death of a marriage for the smallest of issues. That crumbles the foundation of society. Our biggest prayer is that we hope this move will inspire people, whether they’re married or not, to doing the right thing, making a commitment, look at life in a great way, making good decisions. In the institution of marriage, we hope it gives them a framework to provide a sense of direction and inspiration to start or save a marriage.
Was your faith tested?
I was bitter at the Lord. How could this happen? I was on top of the world. I was bulletproof. I told my wife, “I can never be humbled.” But I met a man who lost his leg and then watched his daughter drown because he could not swim to save her. I met a family who lost three daughters in three years. It put things into perspective at how blessed we are. Those kinds of life experiences are all parts of lessons we learn.
Do you have a favorite Bible verse?
2 Corinthians 5:7 “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” And Krickett?
Krickett Carpenter: Mine is “I can do all things by Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13 . That is what I really held onto. He can give you strength through all things. This was just one thing of all the trials that could happen to people. I clung to those verses because God’s word is true and he’s a faithful, loving God.
Posted on February 9, 2012 at 6:39 pm
B| Lowest Recommended Age: | High School |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated PG-13 for an accident scene, sexual content, partial nudity, and some language |
| Profanity: | A few s-words |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Drinking |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Car crash with injuries |
| Diversity Issues: | None |
| Date Released to Theaters: | February 10, 2012 |
| Date Released to DVD: | May 8, 2012 |
| Amazon.com ASIN: | B005LAIGSM |
More than any other attribute, memory is what defines our identity and our connections to each other. When a young woman’s traumatic brain injury erases her memory not just of having married her husband but even of having met him, both of them face daunting challenges about who they are and what they can be to each other.
The first time was so easy. Leo (Channing Tatum) sees Paige (Rachel McAdams), a free-spirited art student, and they are immediately drawn to each other. It was just two weeks later, we will learn, when she first said, almost to herself, that she loved him. They had a quirky-cute wedding at the Chicago Art Institute (near the Seurat painting Ferris Bueller visited on his day off) with their quirky-cute friends and their vows written on the menus of their favorite little coffee shop (Cafe Mnemonic, a bit of memory foreshadowing). They love, love, love each other until their car is hit by a snow plow and she goes through the windshield. When she wakes up from a chemically-induced coma, she thinks Leo is a doctor. She has no memory of him or of the past five years. She thinks she is still in law school and engaged to Jeremy (Scott Speedman). She can’t figure out why her hair is so unstyled or how she got a tattoo. Leo has to try to make her fall in love with him all over again, and this time it will take much longer.
It is inspired by the true story of Kim and Krickett Carpenter, who wrote a book about about their experience but the marketing is intended to tie it to the stars’ previous appearances in Nicholas Sparks movies. It does have Sparks-ian themes of love and loss and it has a gooey layer of Hollywood candy topping, but it is a bit sharper and less sudsy than Sparks movies like “The Notebook” and “Dear John.” Leo and Paige and their friends all so quirky-cute they might be Shields and Yarnell performing in “Godspell.” The further it departs from the real story, jettisoning the importance of the couple’s faith and some of messiness of her recovery and throwing in a tired twist with Paige’s wealthy, uptight, controlling family, the further it gets from what does work in the movie, the palpable tenderness and devotion of Leo and the wrenching challenge of trying to reconnect with Paige as her uncertainty about who she is makes her retreat. The great philosophy professor Stanley Cavell has written about the enduring appeal of the “comedies of remarriage,” movies that are not about falling in love but about re-falling. There is something very captivating about the idea of someone who knows us and is willing to fall in love with us anyway.
Parents should know that this movie includes brief language (s-word), sexual references, adultery and male rear nudity, one punch, alcohol, and a car accident with injuries.
Family discussion: Why was Paige afraid to remember her life with Leo? What does “I wanted to earn it” mean? What does the name of the place Leo and Paige went to eat mean?
If you like this, try: “The Notebook” and “Dear John” and this poignant and inspiring Washington Post article about a similar real-life “in sickness and in health” love story. And read the Carpenters’ book, The Vow: The True Events that Inspired the Movie
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 8:00 am
This week’s romantic drama, “The Vow” starring Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams, is based on the real-life story of a newlywed whose memory was wiped out in an injury and the patience and devotion of her husband in staying with her and teaching her to fall in love with him all over again.
It is inspired by the real-life story of Kim and Krickitt Carpenter, which they told in their book, The Vow: The True Events that Inspired the Movie
It was only 10 weeks after the wedding that an automobile accident made Krickett lose 18 months of memories, including meeting and marrying her husband. They now celebrate two wedding anniversaries each year, the one she still can’t remember and the one where they renewed their vows two years later.
It was a very difficult time for both of them. Krickitt was often frustrated and angry. But their Christian faith continued to sustain them both and their commitment to stay together “in sickness and in health” made them persevere. “I figured, if I fell in love with this guy before, I guess I just need to meet him again,” Krickitt told People Magazine. They married again just so she could remember their wedding. “Only one thing can surpass forever the painful events we have felt,” Kim told her at the ceremony. “That is the love I have for you.”
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