Film Reviews

Love Happens

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: Aaron Eckhart
• Details: US/109mins (12A)

A decent performance from Eckhart and an initially interesting set-up can't save this from the disposable romantic movie pile.

It was a brave move on writer/director Camp's part to try and meld a romantic premise around that of a motivational speaker recovering from the death of his wife - which is why Love Happens is a noble failure as opposed to just a failure. Eckhart is solid as the grief councillor to the masses who's struggling to come to terms with his own loss, but Jennifer Aniston can't be happy with how her character turned out. She's essentially filling to the core story here, which admirably tries to deal with a somewhat gloomy subject matter in a crowd pleasing way. The dreary Seattle setting obviously doesn't help ignite the romantic subplot, instead making the production feel like a long, expensive advertising for umbrellas.
Eckhart plays Burke, a man who lost his wife in a tragic car accident 3 years ago. Deciding to help other people deal with their grief as a way to subside his own, he soon becomes popular thanks to his bestselling self-help book and seminars. Whilst in Seattle working some mourners, he meets Aniston's smart and sassy florist, who just had her musician boyfriend cheat on her for the umpteenth time. Will they fall in love, or will Burke's repressed anguish be too much for her to handle?
You have to admire Camp for trying to do something different with a genre that rarely deviates from the formulaic and banal; it's just his characters needed a lot more work before they made their way from the page to the screen. His pacing too is bordering on lethargic at points, which doesn't help an already plodding story become more interesting. His biggest failure, though, was failing to utilize the obvious romantic chops of Aniston. She's lost here, and although Eckhart too deserved better, his character at least gets the screentime. There's a good movie in there somewhere, this just isn't it.

Review by Mike Sheridan