CERTAIN things are demanded of a film taken from a Nicholas Sparks book. North Carolina, good-looking couple in love, thunderstorms, a river – that sort of thing.

If you’ve seen The Notebook, Dear John, The Lucky One or any of the other adaptations, you’ll know what to expect.

On those counts, Safe Haven doesn’t disappoint, combining all those required ingredients with a thriller element and a preposterous twist in the tale.

Erin (Julianne Hough) flees her home, leaving a bloody body on the floor and hides out in the tiny but charming coastal town of Southport (North Carolina, not Lancashire). She changes her name to Katie and keeps a low profile, renting a cabin in the woods and waiting tables at the local cafe.

If only she wasn’t attracted to the best looking man in town Alex (Josh Duhamel), grocery store owner and widowed single father of two young children.

Before the happy couple can row off into the sunset, something has to be done about the mysterious and, to be honest, not very likeable chap who shows up looking for Katie/Erin. Changing her hair colour and her name isn’t going to fool him for long.

If you like Sparks’ movies – and box office returns on previous efforts indicate there is a sizable audience for such romantic tosh – then Safe Haven is a four-star movie. For the rest of us, it’s an average two-star affair.

Duhamel and Hough, both as good-looking as the North Carolina scenery, make an attractive, if bland, couple and the kids are cute/annoying (delete where applicable).

But nothing, not even a director of the stature of Lasse Hallstrom (who also directed Dear John), can elevate Safe Haven above the level of a safe TV movie.