Saturday, September 26, 2009

What the hell was that?

Love Happens is one of the worst movies I've seen in a long time. It's not the performances -- Jennifer Aniston and Martin Sheen are both quite charming. It's the story, or lack thereof.

A famous self-help guru travels all the way from ... where? I don't know ... back to Seattle to teach a weeklong seminar about overcoming grief. The big plot twist/shocker couldn't happen to a best selling author in this 24-hour news cycle/Internet age. (James Frey, anyone?) We never know how our hero happened into this line of work and how he became such an expert. Jen has a difficult break up as the story opens, but she doesn't seem to agonize over it very long. This isn't in keeping with the sensitive, intuitive character she's playing. The title doesn't even really mean anything.

It's not over-the-top lunatic bad. It's just huh/what/that-doesn't-make-sense bad. Keep your money and just stay on your sofa watching the Lifetime channel. You are sure to see something just as mediocre and corny without even having to get dressed.