Excise the love story, and there's a pretty good movie buried within Love Happens struggling to get out, mostly to little avail.
Love Happens (2009)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:94
Fresh:17
Rotten:77
Average Rating:3.8/10
Consensus: Love Happens is a dull, chemistry-free affair that under-utilizes its appealing leads.
Rated: 12A [See Full Rating] PG-13 for some language including sexual references.
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:09-10-2009
Synopsis:
Aaron Eckhart and Jennifer Aniston star in the romantic drama Love Happens. When a self-help author arrives in Seattle to teach a sold-out seminar, he unexpectedly meets the one person who might...
Aaron Eckhart and Jennifer Aniston star in the romantic drama Love Happens. When a self-help author arrives in Seattle to teach a sold-out seminar, he unexpectedly meets the one person who might finally be able to help him help himself.
Dr. Burke Ryan (Eckhart) is on the precipice of a major multimedia deal, but the therapist who asks his patients to openly confront their pain is secretly unable to take his own advice.
Eloise Chandler (Aniston) has sworn off men and decided to focus on her floral business. However, when she meets Burke at the hotel where he's speaking, there is an instant attraction. But will two people who have met the right person at exactly the wrong time be able to give love another chance?
As each struggles with the hurt of love and loss, they realize that in order to move forward, they need to let go of the past. And if they can, they'll find that, sometimes, love happens when you least expect it. --© Universal
Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Jennifer Aniston, Dan Fogler, Judy Greer
Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Jennifer Aniston, Dan Fogler, Judy Greer, Joe Anderson, John Carroll Lynch, Martin Sheen
Director: Brandon Camp
Director: Brandon Camp
Screenwriter: Brandon Camp, Mike Thompson
Producer: Scott Stuber, Mike Thompson
Composer: Christopher Young
Studio: Universal Pictures
Reviews for Love Happens
That this superficial romance between a successful self-help author and a nurturing florist is also a film about overcoming the tragedy of losing a loved one only makes its clichéd insipidity that much more irksome.
For a sparkly star vehicle with aspirations no greater than highlighting the perfect bone structure of its featured players, Love Happens makes a good case for the three-act formula of a skillfully crafted Hollywood romance.
The film has an uneven tone, unsure whether to mock [Eckhart's] rudimentary words of wisdom or play up his good intentions.
A surprisingly thoughtful romantic drama saddled with a climactic scene so cloying and artificial that one can hardly believe it's part of the same movie. And yet, what surrounds this five-minute faux pas is really kind of great.
A cliche-ridden, treacly drama that trivializes the bereavement process while it makes romance look easy and like a foregone conclusion.
The title is a good indication of this movie's blandness and predictability.
Love supposedly happens in Love Happens. We'll have to take their word for it.
Although the film begins promisingly, it proves to be little more than a soap opera.
Charm can only carry a movie so far, of course. Love Happens is not destined to stick with us or become a romcom classic. It just... happened.
Burke’s hollow pop-psychspeak, lightly ridiculed at first, is wholly embraced by the film’s end, if not as adamantly as the outrageous product placements for Qwest and Home Depot.
Love happens in Love Happens, along with hearts, flowers, wine, roses, sweetness, light and every other cliche the filmmakers can squeeze into a two-hour film.
Because there's no mystery, no chemistry and paper-thin characters, the movie coasts by on the charms of its two stars. And while Eckhart and Aniston are mighty appealing, they need to be given something more with which to work.
Love Happens is a comedy in mourning, a romance so sad that even Jennifer Aniston at her most engaging can't save it.
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June 21, 2009:
Trailer & Poster review ![]()
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