Rating: PG-13
Starring:
Aaron Eckhart as Burke
Jennifer Aniston as Eloise Chandler
Dan Fogler as Lane
John Carroll Lynch as Walter
Martin Sheen as Burke’s Father-in-Law
Judy Greer as Marty
Frances Conroy as Eloise’s Mom
Joe Anderson as Tyler
Special Features:
Deleted Scenes
Giving Romance a New Look
Feature Commentary with Director/Co-Writer Brandon Camp, Producer/Co-Writer Mike Thompson and Executive Producer Richard Solomon
Other Info:
Widescreen (1.85:1)
DTS-HD MA 5.1
Spanish and French Languages
Spanish and French Subtitles
Running Time: 107 Minutes
The Details:
The following is the official description of the film:
“Jennifer Aniston and Aaron Eckhart star in the romantic drama Love Happens. When self-help author Dr. Burke Ryan (Eckhart) arrives in Seattle to teach a sold-out seminar, he unexpectedly meets florist Eloise Chandler (Aniston), the one person who might be able to help him help himself. But will two people who may have met the right person at exactly the wrong time be able to give love a chance? If they can, they’ll find that sometimes, when you least expect it… love happens.”
“Love Happens” is rated PG-13 for some language including sexual references.
Mini-Review:
Did you see the trailer for “Love Happens”? Then you saw the whole movie. You saw that Dr. Burke Ryan is a widowed self-help guru that doesn’t take his own advice. You see he meets the free-spirited Eloise Chandler who re-ignites the romantic spark in him. You see him finally overcome his grief and start practicing what he preaches. The end. This film has almost nothing else left to offer. But it’s not like that’s much to begin with. This film is a cookie cutter romantic comedy/drama if there ever was one. You have the standard free-spirited character, the standard stuffy character that falls in love with them. You have the goofy friend that adds comic relief but isn’t more pretty or handsome than the lead character. You have the oddball romantic dates, the scenes of a character slowly standing up and clapping at the end as a crowd joins in, etc. There’s even a cute animal thrown in. Literally every movie cliché is thrown in this film. While it does a few things right, it does a heck of a lot wrong.
I like Aaron Eckhart a lot and I think he’s a fine actor, but he’s not given much to do as Burke. He does some interesting self-help speeches and discusses overcoming grief in great detail, but it is quickly forgotten any time he’s on screen with Jennifer Aniston and the romance aspect kicks in. I want to like Aniston, but I simply didn’t care for her performance in this movie. She’s just… well, dull. None of the supporting cast is memorable either, including Martin Sheen who is otherwise wasted in this role.
If you’re looking for a romantic movie, I’d recommend looking elsewhere.
The bonus features are light on this DVD. You get a few deleted scenes and a commentary with the filmmakers. There’s also a featurette showing the large amount of green screen they used in the movie. Did you really need green screen to show Eckhart going up a large stairway? Seemed like a waste of effect money.
