Safe Harbour

Typical Danielle Steele, just easy watching on a rainy Sunday. EXCEPT...... Melissa Gilbert's accent is so awful it was totally distracting. The accent goes in and out, and even when it's in it is horrendous. I wonder why the director didn't just stop her after one or two days of shooting and tell her "You are ruining this movie with your horrible accent, just play it straight from now on." It seriously is that bad. When I first noticed it when she met the guy on the beach I thought the character was faking the accent (and badly) just so the guy wouldn't know who she is. Then I realized, nope, this is apparently the accent she'll have the entire film. Uggh. I mean, WHY?!?!?! Did no one on set have the nerve to say how awful she is? The story would have been perfectly fine without the accent.

Okay, I spent enough time on her horrible accent. Otherwise, the film was watchable and Brad Johnson and the girl were good/okay. But if you are a fan of Melissa Gilbert, I would skip this one. She's terrible and barely watchable.

It's not that I completely disliked the movie, I just hate when they make the claim, "based on the book by..." and then the only thing similar is a couple names & maybe a location. They should really say "VERY, VERY loosely based on the book..." or, better yet, "VERY, VERY loosely based on the idea of the book..." Whatever. Okay, rant over. The movie was ok, sappy but okay. I guess I'm not great with picking out bad accents. I kept trying to figure out how long it took her to learn the French & the accent! One thing i did get from this movie, I definitely won't go looking for another Danielle Steel movie "based on" one of her books!

As I said, the book was pretty good and this might have been a good movie if Melissa Gilbert hadn't been so horrible and unbelievable in the lead roll. What kind of accent was that suppose to be anyway? It sounded the same as her horrible Russian accent in another movie that I have seen her in. Every time she opened her mouth I cringed. It took 3 tries before I was able to watch the entire movie. Brad Johnson was good as the other lead.

I really liked the beach location scenes. They added some much needed brightness to take your mind off of Melissa Gilberts depressing portrayal. I think they could have used San Francisco views more to their advantage though. It looked like the night scenes were actually SF, but I could be wrong. I don't recall the character in the book being this depressing.

Please keep Melissa Gilbert out of any future movies that require an accent!

This story was as well done as any producer could do with a Danielle Steele book - all of which are exactly alike and with no depth. I would not have selected Melissa Gilbert for the lead role because her French accent is not good and she was not convincing in the part. There should have been a lot more development of the "romance" between the two leads --- all of a sudden, they are in love. Not sure how they got there but don't think the one "rescue" scene on the beach made a heroine out of Gilbert. It would be hard, however, to be convincing in any Danielle Steele movie due to the lack of believable development of a good story. I'd much rather see some movies made of Janet Dailey's Calder movies --- you could sure call on Brad Johnson to play some roles here - his role in Safe Harbour was excellent and well played. He has a quiet strength which shines through despite Gilbert's part. Brad Johnson would also be great in any of Dailey's Calder books. I think we need more early 1900 western type honest to goodness cowboy movies.

This is a typical Steele novel production in that two people who have undergone some sort of tragedy manage to get together despite the odds. I wouldn't call this a spoiler because anyone who has read a Steele novel knows how they ALL end. If you don't want to know much about the plot, don't keep reading.

Gilbert's character, Ophelia, is a woman of French decent who has lost her husband and son in an accident. Gilbert needs to stop doing films where she is required to have an accent because she, otherwise a good actress, cannot realistically pull off any kind of accent. Brad Johnson, also an excellent actor, is Matt, who is recovering from a rather nasty divorce. He is gentle, convincing and compelling in this role.

The two meet on the beach through her daughter, Pip, and initially, Ophelia accuses Matt of being a child molester just because he talked art with the kid. All of them become friends after this episode and then the couple falls in love.

The chemistry between the two leads is not great, even though the talent of these two people is not, in my opinion, a question. They did the best they could with a predictable plot and a script that borders on stereotypical. Two people meet, tragedy, bigger tragedy, a secret is revealed, another tragedy, and then they get together. I wish there was more to it than that, but there it is in a nutshell.

I wanted mindless entertainment, and I got it with this. In regard to the genre of romantic films, this one fails to be memorable. "A Secret Affair" with Janine Turner is far superior (not a Steele book), as are some of Steele's earlier books turned into film.