Love Happens (2009)

Another generic love story.  Can you guess what happens?  The couple meets, falls in love, breaks up and then gets back together to spend life happily ever after.  Oh, I'm sorry I spoiled it for you, but you should have known how it was going to go the minute you saw the title.  Love Happens?  What a horrible name for this movie.  Enough with the horrible intro, it is not the generic love story or the horrible title that captures you in this film, it is everything else.  Well, almost everything.


2009's Love Happens, while it is a generic love story with a horrible title, is not an all bad movie.  There were a few key roles that were very well acted.  Aaron Eckhart and Dan Fogler were amazing.  Who would have thought Dan Fogler was capable of this role?  I certainly would not think so basing off of his filmography.  I am going as far as to say I don't think that role could have been any better played by any other actor.  I have also been continually impressed with Aaron back since the first big movie I remember him in, Erin Brockovich.  I could list a slew of amazing roles he has acted, but I will just say that he is a breath of fresh air in this time period of generic actors and actresses.  He has a huge range of what he is capable of doing, and he continues to improve the films he is in.  Speaking of generic actresses, what about Jennifer Anniston?  Well, I think I pretty much summed that one up.  I don't know if it is possible for her to play any other character.  Facial expressions, tone of voice, body language and character interactions seem to be the same in every movie I have seen her in lately.  Two other supporting roles that were well acted and added to the film were John Carroll Lynch's and Judy Greer's.

Even thought the overall script was generic love story, it did have features that set it apart.  I was most impressed with the hook at the end of the film that I did not see coming.  No, it was not that the two main characters got back together.  When the film was still in the previews, I told my wife that it was going to be a movie where the main characters got together, broke up and then got back together.  Most love story movies are this same basic script.  The hook at the end was that Aaron's character had been hiding a secret the whole time, which was also predictable by the way, and how he revealed that secret is what I am referring to.

Looking at the bonus features, I found something I would not have fully recognized had it not been for the accidental stumble.  I am impressed with where green screen technology has advanced too.  I think of green screen as crappy background of people riding in a taxi cab that does not even look real.  Put that same situation into this movie, and I seriously thought they were just riding in a taxi cab on the real streets of Seattle.  They had a few scenes where they placed objects into the movie to give it a different look, and those were pulled of seamlessly as well.  Not so much a props to this movie on its own, but a props to where technology has brought movies to now days.

Because of the few good things it did have going for it, Love Happens is getting a 3 star rating.  Well acted on most cases, and small differences that are rememberable and set the film apart keep it at a decent rating.  Generic love story plot line, and horrible title choice keep it from achieving anything but a generic score.  As always leave comments, click above to follow my blog and share to your favorite social networking site below.  Ciao for now and see you for the next review!