Movie Review - Love Happens

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replying the story in its archived form does not constitute a re-publiccation of the story.

Expectations are remarkably low when a film is given a cringe inducing title like Love Happens.  A phrase that treacle is typically found on things like a poster of a cat spooning a dog or, perhaps, a wedding cake topper from Precious Moments.  Aaron Eckhart plays Burke, a widower who’s authored a self-help book on managing the grieving process.  As the film opens, he’s selling books and hosting seminars in hotels.  But success is just around the corner as his business manager Lane (Dan Fogler) is negotiating a deal that would result in a TV show.  But Burke is conflicted due to the fact that his financial success is a direct result of the death of his wife.  So no one is more surprised than him when he finds himself smitten with Eloise (Jennifer Aniston), the hotel’s florist.

The director and co-writer Brandon Camp makes an interesting choice in that Burke isn’t a huckster.  Usually in a film like this, a self-help author would be presented as a fraud in need of redemption.  And while Burke might not always heed his own advice, he has a real affinity for the people that come to his seminars and works to help them.  We hear numerous excerpts from his book and, while they’re little more than repackaged platitudes, they are the sorts of things millions of people legitimately gobble up in books like Chicken Soup for the Soul and/or television shows like Oprah.  However, the film dedicates enough time to these passages to make me think they believe them to be a little more profound than they actually are.

The film is interesting in that it jettisons many of the conceits of the romantic-comedy genre.  It’s not high-concept like recent rom-coms such as How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days or The Proposal.  There isn’t a contrived misunderstanding that serves no purpose other than to create conflict between the two leads.  Nor is there a red herring love interest.   It’s simply about two adults who might be falling in love.  The two cautiously circle each other throughout the film, each not quite sure what to make of the other.  At one point when Eloise learns that Burke has been less than honest with her about something from his past, she doesn’t immediately banish him from her life as character in this sort of film would generally do.  Instead, she listens to his explanation and understands why someone wouldn’t just blurt out that particular fact.  It’s a refreshing reaction for a character in a movie of this type.

Unfortunately, for all of its interesting choices, it makes some missteps as well.  Due to the nature of Burke’s profession, the film all but wallows in grief whenever he isn’t pursuing Eloise.  To that end, there is a very effective subplot involving a man (John Carroll Lynch in a deft performance) who has lost his 12-year old son.  However, it feels as if it’s from another film and, at times, borders on being more interesting the main story.  Despite the film’s attempts to make non-traditional choices for the genre, the story ends up hinging on a “secret” that means everything is not as it appears.  Even though it’s not a major game-changer, it still feels a bit cheap and undermines what the picture appeared to have been striving for up to that point.

In the end, the characters aren’t very well drawn.  The filmmakers end up relying on personality quirks (he won’t take elevators; she loves obscure words) rather than personality traits.  Instead the film is propped up by the strength of Aniston and Eckhart.  And Dan Fogler (as Burke’s business manager) makes every scene he’s in better.  Love Happens is an interesting but flawed film.  There are elements that work and it’s certainly refreshing to see romantic comedy that tries something different.  But ultimately it just doesn’t gel.

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being When Harry Met Sally… and 1 being The Love Guru, Love Happens gets a 6.

This article also has 1 video attached to it.