"Love Happens" Review by Spaldy

Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Jennifer Aniston, Dan Fogler, John Carroll Lynch, Judy Greer, Martin Sheen

Directed by: Brandon Camp

Written by: Brandon Camp & Mike Thompson

The majority of chick flicks that come out in a given year are romantic comedies. This is because women need to laugh at love in an equal approximation to the amount of time they spend complaining and crying over it. Yin and Yang and all that. Sometimes though you just don’t feel like smiling or laughing. In times like these, women reach for a good romance to cry through. This is because a romantic movie, unlike a romantic comedy, usually ends tragically.

“Love Happens” hovers in a place somewhere between these two genres. On one hand there are no laughs to be found in the whole run of the movie. On the other hand no one was maimed or stricken by an illness/motorized vehicle. Though the movie is serious, it doesn’t drive you to tears or break your heart. Instead it is a just a simple movie about grief, hypocrisy, and how we can all be struck with both.

The bulk of the movie centers around the life/recovery of Burke (Aaron Eckhart) who‘s wife died in a tragic accident years ago. Burke wrote a book to help people get through their grief and move on with their lives. Now, Burke it attempting to build a self-help empire based on his simple rules of life. Unfortunately, Burke is a firm believer of the “do as I say not as I do” variety.

The premise could work well enough because at its heart, this is not a love story. Instead this is a movie about fear, trust, and learning to start over. For this reason, the title is probably a bit misleading. Perhaps this movie should have been called “When It Happens” instead. The problem is that the script never fully commits to Burke’s story but instead waffles on whether this is a love story or a story about Burke’s redemption.

Although I actually love Jennifer Aniston, she did not seem right for the role of Eloise. If this movie was a love story, Aniston would have been great in the role. However, since the movie is more a story about Aaron’s recovery than love, Eloise should have been cast with an unknown actress. Eloise is an extension of his grief and a symbol of his recovery. Unfortunately, the script never really committed to that direction. Aniston is luminous but ultimately, it feels like she is in a separate movie from Eckhart all together. They have zero chemistry and even when they are in the same scene it feels like it is a split screen with two movies playing side by side.

Scenes that are meant to be touching come off as cheesy or over the top. Moments that are meant to be humorous feel mostly hollow. The script and the direction are at odds. As a viewer, you are not really sure which story you would like to see, but you definitely are left with the feeling that you only got two halves of two stories and nothing satisfying to laugh or cry about. The movie simply does not know what it is and as an audience member, we can not be expected to decide that for the director. Movies unlike small paperbacks do not lend themselves to the “Choose Your Own Adventure” model.

This might be worth a look if you spot it on cable one rainy weekend. But if you do watch it, remember that you will be left unsettled and unsatisfied as if you never saw the ending of the movie even though you watched the credits roll by.