Review: 'Love Happens'
Plot: A self-help author falls for a florist.
Bottom line: Eckhart and Aniston, both natural charmers, are befouled by this contrived, cliched weeper.
Cast: Aaron Eckhart, Jennifer Aniston, Dan Fogler, Martin Sheen
Length: 1:49
'Love Happens' to Eckhart and Aniston, so do cliches
Photo credit: Universal Pictures via AP, 2009 | Aaron Eckhart, left, and Jennifer Aniston are shown in a scene from "Love Happens."
Videos
Trailer: Love Happens
What happens when troubled self-help author Burke Ryan (Aaron Eckhart) meets disillusioned florist Eloise Chandler (Jennifer Aniston)? 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.
Want to know more? It begins with Burke using lemons to make lemonade. Later he'll walk through fire and set a caged bird free. Eloise is slightly quirkier: She scrawls arcane words in hidden places around Burke's hotel and keeps copies of her customers' love notes (questionable habits, both).
Debut director Brandon Camp and his co-screenwriter, Mike Thompson, can't completely squash the natural charm of their lead actors, who have their moments. But this film features not one but two grieving fathers (Martin Sheen and character actor John Carroll Lynch) and enough Stuart Smalleyisms to keep Al Franken in stitches. Only comedic actor Dan Fogler ("Taking Woodstock"), as Burke's energetic publicist, remains likable throughout.
Spoiler alert! Here is Burke's final line: "When one thing ends, something else begins."
