(CNN) -- A love story released in time for Valentine's Day, bringing together the stars of "The Notebook" (Rachel McAdams) and "Dear John" (Channing Tatum)? Sounds like a cookie-cutter chick flick, for sure. But "The Vow" surpasses low expectations, for this male film critic at any rate, if only because it hits on an intriguing yarn and plays it out with some respect for the characters involved. Tatum is Leo, a young man whose blissfully happy marriage is rear-ended by a snowplow -- propelling wife Paige (McAdams) through the windscreen and into a brain trauma unit. When she wakes up, she's okay -- except that she's wiped out the last five years entirely. She doesn't know Leo, doesn't remember dropping out of law school and switching to art classes, and doesn't like anything she finds in her wardrobe. She also doesn't remember cutting off her parents and her sister -- Leo's never even met them before -- or why she broke up with her fiancÃ©, Jeremy.
@highlight
"The Vow" hits on an intriguing yarn and plays it out
@highlight
Michael Sucsy's movie is a different beast, a romance first and foremost
@highlight
Channing Tatum is a good fit for the bruised and brooding Leo
Still, the scenario (@placeholder is one of five credited writers) throws up some arresting questions about the nature of love.
Of course it's more than a little convenient that @placeholder never stops to ask why she walked out on the life she was groomed for -- the story's second, hidden trauma.