Dir. Brandon Camp, US, 2009 Year, 109 mins
Cast: Jennifer Aniston, Aaron Eckhart, Sasha Alexander
Review by Carlie Newman
Once again, a Jennifer Anniston rom-com – and is this one another dud for her? This time, no, Love Happens is certainly romantic with some comedy. Aniston’s co-star is Aaron Eckhart and there is definitely much more chemistry between these two than there was between Aniston and Steve Zahn in Management. Eckhart gives a charming performance as psychotherapist and self-help expert, Burke Ryan. Following the death of his wife in a car accident three years earlier, Burke has written a best selling book on how to cope with extreme grief after bereavement. When we first meet him, he is holding a seminar for people who have lost a dear one. The sessions involve Burke giving pep talks and going through the chapters in his books with pointers, such as telling people to look in the mirror and smile for five minutes each day, until they find they can smile naturally. The talk ends with him giving his special ‘A-Okay’ sign, which the participants repeat back to him. The sessions are followed by workshops of a seemingly equally trite nature, where those attending are encouraged to express their feelings and expose their anger.
When Burke meets florist Eloise (Aniston), who is arranging her blooms at the conference hotel in Seattle and writing long, unusual words such as ‘quidnunc’ behind pictures hung in the corridors, he finds someone he can connect with for the first time since his wife died. Eloise has been cheated on by yet another inappropriate boyfriend and, as her assistant in the flower shop says, has a distinct knack for consistently picking the wrong fellow. As she gets to know Burke, Eloise realises that although he tells others how to cope with their distressful state, he has not learnt to deal with his own loss. Helped by Burke’s enthusiastic agent, whose chief aim is to secure a big media contract for his client but who also cares for his well-being, Eloise tries to help Burke address his demons.
There is a moving portrayal of a father whose son died in an accident while he was working and for which the father (John Carroll Lynch) feels that he is to blame, while some effective comedy is provided by Judy Greer as Marty, Eloise’s somewhat zany flower-shop assistant. Martin Sheen is also convincing as the father of Burke’s dead wife, with whom Burke severed connection after the loss of their daughter. As he later explains, he felt that he lost two people when his daughter died.
It is though the connection between the two leads that forms the core of the film. Eckhart gives an in-depth portrayal of someone wracked with grief at his loss and his inability to face the guilt he feels, while Aniston’s timing is good and she gives a meaningful performance as a woman trying to change her way of life. So, instead of yet another film where we ask, “Why does Jennifer Aniston pick such dumb films to star in?" what we have here is a very watchable film with a number of weepy moments, which may well provide good emotional relief for some cinema goers.
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