Sunday, February 28, 2010

Valentine's Day

First just let me say I think Garry Marshall has done some great work, and I am truly a fan of a lot of what he has done. Pretty Woman is still one of the best chick flicks of all time. His latest endeavor has fallen short in my opinion. Maybe going into it my expectations were just too high. Honestly, how can you go wrong with a cast that huge, and a director who has cranked out some of the best romantic comedies of our time? I think that it was just too much for the old boy to handle. It did have all of the classic signs of a Garry Marshall film. For instance, the use of three or four of the same actors he always employs in his movies, including Hector Elizondo; a walk-on self cameo, witty lines, and of course, a happy ending...or rather endINGS in this case.

The entire time I was watching it I was comparing it to "Love Actually", which follows the same pattern of having many intertwined "mini-stories" instead of one main linear plot. The main difference between the two (other than one being British made, and the other made in the good old U.S.A) is that in "Valentine's Day", the only common thread among all the characters was the day February 14th. In "Love Actually", the theme throughout was "love is all around, it may come in different forms, but it's still there". In short, I felt that it seriously lacked cohesion. The lines were great, and most of the mini-stories were great in themselves, but I feel as an audience we didn't get to see enough character and overall story development to enjoy it like we should.

There were a few non-predictable plot lines that I actually liked. My favorite was Julia Robert's role of a soldier on her way home to visit her son for only a few hours before returning to active duty. The outcome of Robert's character's journey actually evoked tears, and I loved it.

The other plot line that I thought actually held something more than either devastation or predictability was the one between Topher Grace and Ann Hathaway. I won't give it away, but when he finally came around (with the help of Hector Elizondo and Shirley McClain) he realized that when you really love someone, you have to love all of them, not just the parts you like.

Among the muuuultiple other plot lines there were some good messages as well, such as forgiveness, the value of abstinence, the fact that single people actually CAN have fun on Valentines Day; and sometimes, it doesn't matter how beautiful someone is, they can still be totally awful people underneath.

Which leads me to a funny point I just realized about the movie. They took McDreamy, McSteamy, and Bradley Cooper and took the dreamy, steamy and hotness right out of them by making one character a lying, cheating scumbag, and the other two gay... talk about disappointment!

Anyway, I really DID want to like it, and I'm not saying it was terrible. I'm just saying it was predictable and made it difficult to get involved with any of the characters to a decent degree. Outside of one or two of them, the characters were basically flat and seemed to serve more as place-holders than anything else. this is one of the main reasons it was difficult to enjoy. By making it difficult to really get involved with the characters, I felt like I was just watching a bunch of people I didn't really care about go through their day. When it comes down to it, that was the main problem. No cohesion between the characters, and no real connection between the characters and the audience. I rate this one a renter for a night in alone. C+, B- at best.


Other fun points I noticed:

- Taylor Swift was annoying as HELL, and I feel like the movie served as a plug for her music. This was disappointing because I do like her... yet more proof that singers SHOULD NOT try to act (as if we needed more proof after Justin Timberlake, PDiddy, and JLo)

-Jessica Beil should retire, or just model- she can't act.

- no matter how big of a jerk he plays, Patrick Dempsey still has the ability to make the female masses swoon.

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