Safe Haven, Nicholas Sparks, 2010 (novel) & Safe Haven, Lasse Hallstrom, 2013 (film)
(Spoilers)
Since Safe Haven (the film) is one of my long time choice romance movies, I was eager to see if it was Nicholas Sparks, in his novel of the same name, or Lasse Hallstrom, 2013 film director, who was the real genius. I found that despite being identical plots, the film adaptation does not directly depict the events of the novel, and I also found I preferred the build-up that was created in Hallstrom’s movie over the sequence of things in Sparks’ novel.
First, to get the novel review out of the way, I rated it 4 stars on Goodreads. Truthfully I think this may be a biased rating because I do love the movie so much, and naturally relate the two, but this was my first Nicholas Sparks’ novel and I was surprised at his rudimentary writing style (is that a harsh word?); it’s giving Colleen Hoover (that’s not to hate on Colleen Hoover—it’s just she’s known for her very simple, easy writing and for being very plot-based).
I think mainly my disappointment comes from the many fantastic Nicholas Sparks’ movie adaptations out there: The Last Song, Dear John, The Notebook, The Vow, and I know there are others but these ones are the ones that literally shaped my ideas of romance as a young, impressionable adolescent. Thanks Nicholas. (Fun fact, I had my first juicy kiss after watching The Notebook and lost my virginity after watching The Vow. That’s something, huh). A bit of a movie killer to think the novels aren’t of the same hype.
Firstly, the descriptions of Katie threw me off. Her character in the movie has short, blond hair during the present, and long, brown hair in the past; in the book she has long, blond hair in the past, and short, brown hair in the present. Other odd, random changes are that the character of Kristen (Alex’s daughter) is named Lexi in the movie, though I do think Lexi suits her character name better. The little actress, btw, Mimi Kirkland, killed the part of Lexi. Her portrayal of Lexi/Kristen was probably the most accurate character portrayal of all the characters in the novel.
In both the novel and the film, there’s sort of an obscure start, where we don’t know exactly why Katie has moved to this small, South Carolina town; we only know she’s running from a traumatic past. In the novel, however, the descriptions of her past feel so cryptic that I was worried when we learned of what she’s running from—an abusive ex—we’d sort of feel let down at the domesticity of it all rather than there being some crazy, unexpected, murderous plot twist or something. But rather quickly we do learn what she’s running from, and it turns out the abuse she’s running from in the novel is a lot more extreme than what I expected from having previously watched the movie. This may be due to the director’s decision not to include such graphic memory scenes, but in the novel we get a way more intimate look into the abuse she’d endured for four years. Just to include one example here, Kevin once held her at gunpoint and told her he’d kill her if she ever tried escaping again (after her second attempt). The multiple attempts at escaping, nor his response to it, are included in the book. The final escape which lands her in South Carolina is also very different; in the movie, our one night of flashbacks are the spontaneous night in which she hits Kevin unconscious and runs out, but in the novel she spent a year planning and hiding money in order to leave him.
Kevin’s character in the novel is a lot more developed, but believe it or not, I think his characterization takes points off for Sparks’ writing ability because it comes off as facile and even slightly uninformed? Sparks uses a different stylistic voice for Kevin’s perspective (though still a third person narration, as is the entire novel), meant to show he suffers from either autism or OCD. It threw me that it wasn’t more clear; he has a bunch of compulsive, repetitive thoughts that are written very simplistically, in a childlike manner. They read as fixations, such as with the Catholic Bible, which he quotes and repeats on multiple occasions to justify his capture or murder of Katie (the aspect of Religion is, justly, left out of the movie completely). The fixations, and his excessive observatory skills (which borderline sensory issues), seem to be of Autistic tendencies. However, he does not seem to have socialization issues (except possibly his neighbors, who he fixates on for being “bad neighbors,” and doesn’t ever speak to), and the fixations can be interpreted as compulsions.
The novel’s other, better man is Alex. In both novel and film this man is a dream of yours and mine. Anyway, his character differs from the novel in how his character in the film doesn’t disclose much about his past (other than that his lovely wife has passed away a few years ago, and he still has some trouble with it), but in the novel, he had worked previously worked as a detective and was trained in recognizing the signs in women of domestic abuse by their partners (how opportune). Because of this, he supposes Katie is running from an ex long before she admits it to him. He is incredibly unpushy toward her—showing that he knows exactly how to handle women with this blight. I’d argue, though, that his patience with her comes off as being slightly passive, and I don’t think it lent well to his caring, protective character. This flaw is ameliorated by the movie, where Alex is not said to have a past with Domestic abuse victims, and he does not guess her situation before she tells him; and she does not, in fact, tell him.
Katie’s lack of candor in the film nicely sets up the scene for their great scene of tension, which surrounds him finding a fake poster with her image on it, claiming she is wanted for murder. He confronts her, upset that he knows nothing about her past and she’s been so welcomed around his kids. Valid. In the book, the tension is silly. He suggests marriage (which does seem too soon), and Katie essentially throws a tantrum and then says some real out of pocket remark like “what, do you wanna hit me?” which reads as an unfounded temper tantrum and paints her in a disagreeable light (which I don’t think was Sparks’ intent). It works better that in the film they don’t consider marriage at all.
As mentioned earlier, Kristen/Lexi’s character portrayal is exact from the novel, but Josh, on the other hand, is characterized differently. He is very sweet in the book; he misses his mother and he’s curious about Katie, but he’s never angry about her. In the movie, however, he’s a lot more angsty; causes problems for Alex, and expresses little interest in Katie, a reflection of how much he misses his mother. I favor the movie characterization, which makes him a more dynamic character, where in the novel he feels much younger and less aware.
Jo’s character (Alex’s late wife and Katie’s friend/neighbor), whom we aren’t suspicious about at all in the movie, is very suspicious in the book. It’s written to seem as though she was either an ex of Alex or the children’s therapist after the death of their mother. She says cryptic things to Katie, meant to foreshadow but only work to add to our suspicion of her which is, again, a negative perception that Sparks does not seem to intend. At the end, when we find out she’s Alex’s late wife having come to guide her, it’s a way bigger shock and has more evocative value in the movie.
All in all, I see my review has become a comparison essay on the Safe Haven book and the Safe Haven movie, and although it was a great book, I think the movie wins for plot points. I liked how Alex didn’t know about Katie’s abuse, I liked how Josh had trouble accepting his father’s relationship, I liked how Jo wasn’t suspicious, and I liked how we didn’t know much about Kevin other than the fact that he was a piece of elephant shit. His whole catholicism, messed up religious ideology feels sort of surface level in the novel, despite it adding to his character.
Quotes:
Katie worked both the lunch and dinner shift. As day faded into night, she loved watching the night sky turning from blue to gray to orange and yellow at the western rim of the world. At sunset, the water sparkled and sailboats healed in the breeze. The needles on the pine trees seemed to shimmer. As soon as the sun dropped below the horizon, Ivan turned on the propane gas heaters and the coils began to glow like jack-o-lanterns. Katie’s face had gotten slightly sunburned, and the waves of radiant heat made her skin sting.
She could taste salt on her lips and imagined that her soul was leaking out. She wanted desperately to sleep.
The bruise on her wrist was shaped like fingers. Branches of Hell.
July rolled in with the breath of dragons: hot and moist and horizons that shimmered like a mirage when seen from a distance.
Instead, she tilted her head, resting it against his shoulder, and Alex was struck by the notion that there was nothing better in the world.
