Love Happens
Posted by swannernjudd on October 15, 2009
Swanner: Dr. Burke Ryan’s (Aaron Eckhart) wife was killed in an accident three years early and to deal with his grief he wrote the now best seller A…Okay which helps people deal with death. When he arrives in Seattle to teach a sold-out seminar, he unexpectedly meets the one person (Jennifer Aniston) who might finally be able to help him help himself.
Judd: Blah! On any normal day this is a movie I would have skipped, I don’t know what possessed me to go and see it, but the whole movie is a clear reminder of why I hate romance films. Love Happens is full of trite and contrived scenarios created for the sole purposed of making menopausal women cry.
Swanner: Hey I cried during the movie! I thought it was good. It’s has the always fresh Jennifer Aniston and the yummy Aaron Eckhart playing non-cliché characters. This is about emotions and coming to terms with death. We didn’t have to see any gross making love scenes or deal with jealous ex’s. This is a different romance
Judd: Different? The first ½ hour is completely by the book. Boy hits on girl. Girls cusses out boy. Boy cusses out girl. Girl cusses out boy again, because she’s just that sassy, then all of a sudden they’re on a date. He’s a widower getting over his dead wife and she recently dumped her shitty boyfriend. What about any of that is original?
Swanner: First is was nice that they weren’t 22 years old. Look, it’s a romance and it wouldn’t be much of a movie if they suddenly just liked each other…the end. See how that doesn’t really work? You liked 500 Days of Summer and it had a similar start up. If they don’t dislike each other a bit then you have no build up of romance.
Judd: Don’t even try and compare 500 Days of Summer with this garbage. The two movies aren’t even the same. 500 days deals with the soaring highs and crushing lows of a relationship in a unique and endearing fashion. Meanwhile, Anniston introduces Eckhart to her goofy mother – played by Frances Conroy, but could have been played by Diane Keaton and it wouldn’t have made a lick of difference — and Eckhart’s father, as played by Robert DeNiro, is a bit of an asshole.
Swanner: It was Martin Sheen who played Eckhart’s father-in-law!!! Were you even watching the movie??? I’ll agree , with only one scene in the movie they might as well have just used a nobody in the role of Aniston mother but Diane Keaton…seriously! You need to leave her alone. One bad movie and she been branded a bad actress. Go back and rewatch Annie Hall, you asshole!!! Now I’m not even talking about the movie…you!!! I liked this movie. It must be hard to understand the emotion of love for a Tin Man with no heart.
Judd: Don’t get pissed at me because your precious “different romance” is just as stale and commonplace as anything else that’s been churned out by the Hollywood mimeograph. Hell, there was even a moment in the movie where Eckhart finally gets in touch with his emotions and they reward him with the slow clap. The Slow Clap!!! You can’t get anymore clichéd than the slow clap.
Swanner: I admitted I hated the slow clap scene and I was okay with just one bad part. Did it ruin the movie for me…NO! I will not let you drag me down to your level. It was good, deal with it. Maybe one day you’ll see that Love Happens to all of us. Did you like the way I worked the title into what I was saying?
Judd: You’re such a girl that sometimes it clouds your judgment. Love Happens is not different or good. It’s the same old bullshit that gets trotted out at least a dozen times a year. The only thing it was missing was that Anniston didn’t hold Eckhart in her arms repeating “it’s not your fault” until he broke down and cried.
Swanner: 2 ½ Stars
Judd: ½ Star
