Name: Safe Haven (PG-13)
Director: Lasse Hallström
Rating: 9.5/10
Now playing at: Regal Lakeline Mall 9, Cinemark Cedar Park, Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek, and Galaxy Moviehouse and Eatery.
From the author of the best-selling novels and well known films “The Notebook,” “The Last Song,” and “Dear John,” comes “Safe Haven,” which follows the story of a girl fleeing her troubled past and starting a new life in the small beach town of Southport, North Carolina. The movie, whose director was also the director of Dear John, was sequentially perfect and not rushed or lacking information as in other Sparks movies. The plot, however, was the highlight of the movie. The director found a clever way to make the plot twist and turn in directions that were unseen to the audience. The characters also had depth and personality, thanks to Josh Duhamel and Julianne Hough. They added a sort of reality and believability to the past of the characters as well as their perspectives.
As the movie was an excellent choice, so is the book. Written by Nicholas Sparks, the book differs from the movie in a few minor ways. For example in the movie Katie is a brunette and dies her hair blonde, while in the book it is reversed. Other small things like names, appearances and such are changed. The book, like many other Sparks novels, is perfectly crafted and beautifully written. Sparks incorporates real-life problems and elaborates the histories and character traits of his characters. The book was more in depth then the movie, as most are, and was overall a great read.
While watching the movie in theatres, the songs played in many scenes of the movie caught my ear. After getting home, I downloaded the album and have had it on repeat since. The album contains beautiful songs that bring back memories of summer and the beach, as in the movie. My favorite song of the album is “Heart’s Content” by Brandi Carlile. They played the song during the scene where Katie and Alex dance in his store. It is a sweet and catchy song, the kind that will be stuck in your head for a while after listening to it. The album was a great purchase and was not at all a let down from the movie or book.
“Safe Haven” is a great three part story that expands with every venture into a different media. The movie, book, and album are all noteworthy and to leave one out would be to simply disregard a wonderful work of art.





![Senior Jett Mckinney stores all the clothes in his own room, with half of it stored in his closet along with his personal clothes, and the rest taking up space in his room.
“There’s been times [when] there’s so much clothing stored here and it gets overwhelming, so I end up having to sleep somewhere else in the house,” Mckinney said.](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/DSC_0951-1200x800.jpg)



![Broadcast, yearbook and newspaper combined for 66 Interscholastic League Press Conference awards this year. Yearbook won 43, newspaper won 14 and broadcast took home nine. “I think [the ILPC awards] are a great way to give the kids some acknowledgement for all of their hard work,” newspaper and yearbook adviser Paige Hert said. “They typically spend the year covering everyone else’s big moments, so it’s really cool for them to be celebrated so many times and in so many different ways.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/edited-ILPC.jpg)




![Looking down at his racket, junior Hasun Nguyen hits the green tennis ball. Hasun has played tennis since he was 9 years old, and he is on the varsity team. "I feel like it’s not really appreciated in America as much, but [tennis] is a really competitive and mentally challenging sport,” Nguyen said. “I’m really level-headed and can keep my cool during a match, and that helps me play a bit better under pressure.” Photo by Kyra Cox](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/hasun.jpg)

![Bringing her arm over her head and taking a quick breath, junior Lauren Lucas swims the final laps of the 500 freestyle at the regionals swimming competition on date. Lucas broke the school’s 18-year-old record for the 500 freestyle at regionals and again at state with a time of 4:58.63. “I’d had my eye on that 500 record since my freshman year, so I was really excited to see if I could get it at regionals or districts,” Lucas said. “ State is always a really fun experience and medaling for the first time was really great. It was a very very tight race, [so] I was a bit surprised [that I medaled]. [There were] a lot of fast girls at the meet in general, [and] it was like a dogfight back and forth, back and forth.” Photo by Kaydence Wilkinson](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Kaydence-2.7-23-edit-2.jpg)


![As her hair blows in the wind, senior Brianna Grandow runs the varsity girls 5K at the cross country district meet last Thursday. Grandow finished fourth in the event and led the varsity girls to regionals with a third place placement as a team. “I’m very excited [to go to regionals],” Grandow said. “I’m excited to race in Corpus Christi, and we get to go to the beach, so that’s really awesome.” Photo by Addison Bruce](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/brianna.jpg)













