We’ve all seen the previews – our hearts melted, and we’ve been dying to see the movie ever since.

If you felt this way about The Vow and haven’t seen it yet, lower your expectations.

Starring Channing Tatum from Dear John and Rachel McAdams from The Notebook, millions of girls, including me, were dying to see this new romance movie, thinking it would be the next Notebook. The reality is, the two can’t compare.

Despite their great acting in previous movies, the acting in The Vow was lack luster. It wasn’t terrible, but it did not leave a lasting impression.

The Vow, based on true events, has a great plot, but the previews were very deceiving. They show a happy ending, but, unlike The Notebook, there is no real conclusion to The Vow.

The story begins with a very in-love, married couple, Leo and Paige, driving home on a snowy night from a date when they come to a stop sign. Unbuckling her seat belt, Paige leans over to kiss Leo when an eighteen wheeler is unable to stop and crashes into them from behind; pushing their small car into a pole and forcing Paige to fly through the windshield.

At the hospital, Leo finds out that she lost much of her memory. When she comes out of her coma, the last thing she remembers is her high school career and the beginning of college – when she was engaged to her ex-fiance, Jeremy.

After watching the previews, the audience is left expecting to watch Leo win Paige’s heart back, proving true love conquers all, but in the movie, this isn’t even shown! After the accident, Leo is extremely understanding and patient about Paige’s memory loss and does really sweet things to try to trigger old memories, but Paige still feels like she doesn’t even know him.

She doesn’t remember the person she had become and acts the way she was before she met Leo. This breaks Leo’s heart and is really challenging for him, especially while competing with Jeremy for Paige’s heart, which is stuck in the college memories. Through it all, he doesn’t forget the vows they made on their wedding day – to stick together through all the challenges that life may bring. Eventually, though, he realizes that Paige doesn’t want him anymore, so he gives up, but this isn’t the end.

The Vow focuses on how Paige makes the same decisions she made the first time around, such as dropping out of law school, breaking things off with Jeremy and becoming an artist. All these things led her to Leo. It’s interesting to see this happen, but I kind of wish that the movie would have shown Leo re-capturing her heart like the previews hinted. At the end of the movie, she meets Leo at their favorite restaurant to get a drink, and they walk off. The movie ends right there, leaving you in suspense of what happens next. Of course we all know that they end up back together, but I personally wanted to see the process.

The Vow was a really good movie, and the acting wasn’t bad, but it did not meet my expectations. I recommend it, but I don’t think it’s worth seeing more than twice.