Love Happens (2009)
Directed by Brandon Camp
Written by Brandon Camp, Mike Thompson
Starring Aaron Eckhart, Jennifer Aniston, Dan Fogler, Judy Greer, Martin Sheen
Release Date September 18th, 2009
Published September 18th, 2009
Is there possibly a less passion inspiring romance title than Love Happens? Love eh? Love Ensues? Love Stumbled Upon? If only the low watt title were the film's biggest problem. Oh no. Love Happens is riddled with troubles. Quirk ridden stand ins where characters should. A storyline as predictable as sunrise. And then there is a damn bird.
Aaron Eckhart stars in Love Happens as self help guru Burke Ryan. He's Dr. Phil but handsome. Burke lost his wife 3 years ago in a car accident which led to him writing a book about living with loss. Now he travels the country with his faithful sidekick (Dan Fogler), performing workshops to help people cope with loss.
Finding himself back in the city where his wife died, Seattle, Burke is looking to get in and get out before his past catches up with him. Literally while he isn't looking, Burke stumbles upon Eloise, a flower shop owner with one weird quirk on top of another. She likes to write obscure words on walls behind paintings in hotel hallways. (I said it was a weird quirk).
He is smitten immediately but she blows him by pretending to be a mute. Her ruse doesn't hold up and their next encounter is an argument. An argument that of course means they are destined to fall in love. Destined though they may be they first must be kept apart and a predictable secret from his past is supplied solely for the purpose of keeping them at a distance.
Don't worry, I won't spoil the big reveal of Burke's secret, the movie will do that in the first 5 to 10 minutes. Anyone who has seen movies like Sweet November or Return To Me or really any similarly hoary cliched romance won't need a map to find this ending well before it arrives for the characters.
It is the nature of a romantic comedy to be a little predictable, not many end with the lovers parting ways. Thus, these movies are more about the journey than the destination. Unfortunately, this is one lame journey. One that feels twice as long as it really is.
Brandon Camp is a first time director whose experience is mostly in TV drama. His roots likely contribute to the episodic, disjointed storytelling that devotes a good deal of time to filler material to pad itself out beyond what might have been better suited to something of 44 minutes plus commercials.
Most egregious of the filler material is a subplot involving a man who lost his little boy and attends Burke's seminar. While we are supposed to like Burke the film keeps making him out as a shyster. Then he alternately attempts to help and rip off this pained father, effectively portrayed by John Carroll Lynch, in serious scenes sandwiched between goofball romance scenes.
Love Happens has about as much consistency in tone as it does energy in that stupid title. One minute we are in the midst of both characters in a wacky moment. Next we are watching people who have lost a family member be taken in by a shyster who is supposed to be our hero.
Wow, what a mess this movie is. From the bizarre maudlin subplots to the lame secret right down to the two main characters who aren't so much characters as a collection of traits given to Eckhardt and Aniston to drop in as they wish. She likes writing on walls. He's afraid of elevators. She keeps copies of other people's love notes. He might be an alcoholic.
Not one of these traits has any kind of payoff, at least not one that makes any difference to the main plot. The traits exist only to give the actors something to do in between the bouts of mind-numbingly awful dialogue that includes not just 'when life gives you lemons....' but also 'if you love something, set it free'. Ugh.
And then there is the damn bird. Folks, if you are a member of PETA you will want to skip Love Happens. The bird goes unharmed, for the most part but its treatment in the film is beyond idiotic. Worse, it assumes that we in the audience are just as dumb as the movie.
Love Happens is an abysmal bit of treacle aimed at the soft hearted and softer headed. Not even the uncontainable charms of the wonderful Jennifer Aniston can bring this treacle any more life than that shrug shouldered title, Love Happens.
