Love Happens

Tagline: Sometimes when you least expect it . . .

I'm a die hard Friends fan and will support any of the actors when they make a movie so naturally I wanted to see this movie which was marketed as this amazing funny love story between these two unlikely people who meet at a grief seminar. It follows Aaron Eckhart who becomes a self-help guru through the success of his book he writes following his wife's death and the love interest, Jennifer Aniston, he meets while giving a seminar in Seattle. First I must say that I am baffled at how this movie even got green-light. I don't even see where they saw potential. Even more baffling, is how they got Aniston and Eckhart to sign on! The story is full of flaws and stereotypes. Most of the plot points would just never happen in real life. Nobody takes a date on top of a powerline bucket truck to watch a concert, or takes someone you've been dating for less than two days to confront the parents of his widowed wife. The story is just unbelievable, not to mention that the lead character has a life-changing breakdown where he reveals his secrets . . .on stage. . . at the end of the seminar . . . in front of the corporate execs that just came at that part . . . and then his father in law walks in at just the right moment of his breakdown monologue. The story also had a subplot with a character in the seminar coping with the loss of his son and It was completely arrogant and again unrealistic to portray that all of these people's grief could be overcome by an act of healing, be it a trip to a hardware store or the releasing of a domestic bird into the while. So not only did it fail on the love side of the story but also on the grief as well. It was just a ridiculous script and dragged on making the movie feel much longer than its actual runtime. Its also very unrealistic that these two characters would even have such a deep connection after only a few days, althought the seminar appeared to last for months on end giving the slow pace of the movie. So the script was boring and extremely unrealistic, but also there was no chemsitry between Aniston and Eckhart. They both gave good performances, I will say that. Although, that doesn't pre-designate that chemistry will ensue. I think this is a problem for a lot of studios who assume they can just throw two good actors together and they will automatically have chemistry. I believe this is why there is such a thing as a screen test. I wasn't impressed with the editing either. There were a couple of montages early in the movie which did not fit or make sense with the rest of the movie. It looked amateur as if it was thrown in to be thrown in there. The actors did give good performances, however even Meryl Streep wouldn't have been able to save this movie. Although, Eckhart goes playing the likeable single male again and Aniston proves why she keeps being type-cast as the quirky love interest. I think this was a terrible decision on both of their parts as this movie would barely even belong on the Hallmark channel. I will say the music mix was good with good song choices. I usually can find something I like about all the movies I see, however I found little to nothing, besides the main actors in this movie. Quote: "you can't move forward when you have your eyes stuck on the rear-view mirro'.