One of my favorite movies way back when was the film, Safe Haven. I fell in love with Josh Duhamel’s character of a small-town guy/ dad who won over Julianne Hough’s heart. I have not seen him in any romantic films in a while so when I heard about the movie The Lost Husband with Leslie Bibb, I decided to watch it online.
The Lost Husband is about Libby (Leslie Bibb), who lost her husband in an accident and is left with two young girls to take care of. Living with her mother, with whom she has a complicated relationship, she finds it hard to get over her husband’s death. The movie starts with her moving out of her mother’s house and to her Aunt’s farm in Texas.
On the farm, Libby’s Aunt tells her that she wants her to help manage the farm with the help of their farm manager, James (Josh Duhamel). Of course, as any fan of romantic movies knows and expects, it is the whole working together thing that gives the two the chance to fall for each other. Several moments were (I guess) meant to be romantic, with them being locked in a freezer together and James kissing Libby in front of people who were making fun of her looks, but I did not feel the romantic vibes between the two as much as I would have wanted.
At one point it is revealed that James is helping take care of his ex-wife, who had a stroke. With Libby still not over her husband’s death and his current situation, there was obviously hesitation on both sides to give their relationship a try. Not even him bonding with her kids was enough to encourage that.
Eventually, however, Libby finds her moment of closure and James finally gets his ex-wife to her parents so that he can move on as well. They end up kissing and that is the end of the movie.
As I mentioned earlier, the romance just did not give me the feels. I would have loved to have felt it, but I just did not, which was too bad. There was also a side story about how Libby learns she actually grew up with her Aunt as a child before her mother took her away, but I felt it was not that necessary for the plot or her story (or romance). I would have been happier with more romantic moments, to be honest.
There was a bit of an easter egg of sorts in the film for fans of the late 90s - early 2000s TV: in the scene where there were women making fun of Libby’s appearance, one of the women was Carly Pope. Carly played Sam in the series Popular, which also starred Leslie Bibb as her stepsister Brooke. The funny part about this is that in Popular, it is Leslie Bibb who plays a character who plays the flashy, popular type while Carly Pope plays the simple, unpopular one. In this movie, their roles are switched. I do not know if that was done on purpose to include Carly Pope, but I felt that it was a good nod to the series that I enjoyed watching in the past. And for another TV actor appearance, there was also a cameo from Kevin Alejandro (who plays Danny in Lucifer), as Libby’s husband.
I was really hoping for a good romance starring Josh Duhamel again. I was disappointed with this one. Is it because he is older or because the story was just not good? I am not so sure.
The Lost Husband can be bought or rented from YouTube.
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