Movie Review: Love Happens (2009)

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As someone who feels that the self-help industry is in need of self-help and seminars are just a larger version of Paul Dano making Daniel Day Lewis shout "I've abandoned my child" in There Will Be Blood, needless to say I was a tad skeptical about the prospect of a love story set amidst a self-help seminar.

Yet, while I don't believe in the moral and ethical implications of the backdrop of "open your wallet and we'll help you with common sense" or wondering about what happens when someone leaves said seminar and is away from workshops, I do believe in one of the most criminally underrated actors working in American cinema today, Mr. Aaron Eckhart.

Curiously driven to flawed and downright ugly roles perhaps as a determined effort to refocus attention he's no doubt received all his life for his Robert Redford-esque looks whether it's in his tour de force turn in Thank You For Smoking or via vile characters portrayed in Nurse Betty or In the Company of Men or switching up his appearance to win Julia Roberts' heart in Erin Brockovich, the bottom line is there's nothing false about Eckhart when he's onscreen.

This film is (mostly) no exception as he tackles an externally perfect, internally struggling self-help guru who, having tragically lost his wife in a freak traffic accident a few years earlier, took his day job writing columns for Psychology Today and worked through his grief by chronicling it in book form. When his friend and manager, Lane (Dan Fogler) read the book titled A-Okay and gave it to a publisher, it became a phenomenal bestseller earning Eckhart's Dr. Burke Ryan legions of fans before it evolved into sold-out seminars where he helps others grappling with the death of a loved one.

Guilty about the perception of cashing in on his wife's death and not actually managing to have followed his own advice to avoid alcohol since it's like putting a bandage "on a bullet wound" or forcing himself to smile for five minutes every day until it becomes natural, privately Burke is a wreck. Ritually, he puts himself through impossible trials of running up and down several flights of stairs at the hotels he visits around the country and looks ready for a panic attack each time after enlisting the help of liquid courage before he puts on a happy, confident face for the paying participants.Simply put, when we meet Burke, he visibly feels like the other four letter word that usually precedes "happens" in pop culture. Thus, it's quickly evident upon his arrival to host a grief workshop in Seattle where he's confronted by father-in-law Martin Sheen he's avoided for years that Love Happens is not going to be the feel great date movie of the year.

Yet despite its many, many contrivances, it gets much better as it continues as-- to his amazement-- Burke finds himself attracted and fascinated by Jennifer Aniston's free-spirited florist Eloise who provides the hotel with gorgeous, fresh arrangements. The unlikely and charmingly awkward courtship of the two gets off to a very rocky start as, coming off another romantic letdown with a philandering ex (Joe Anderson), Eloise tries to dodge the Seattle visitor first by pretending she's deaf and then by telling him off in the men's room that she isn't going to be a local girl he can just have a fling with... yet in much more colorful language.

Aniston and Eckhart spark well together which is refreshing to see for Aniston who has struggled in the past with unconvincing chemistry opposite Clive Owen in Derailed and Mark Ruffalo in Rumor Has It and sure enough, this is one of her strongest roles since The Break-Up and Friends With Money as she elevates the film from its Nicholas Sparks air of depression with a fun Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail mixed with Natalie Portman in Garden State vibe.

In fact, I was reminded of Garden State and its influence Harold and Maude numerous times as similarly in Happens, the life-affirming yet slightly screwed up, unconventional woman helps lead the path for a man to heal with love. While the choice to make her a florist is definitely symbolic as romance blooms and flowers die just like people and arrangements are used in times of sympathy and celebration and one of her unique quirks is making copies of "life on a 3x5 card" aka notes that are sent along with flowers that have stuck out in her life, the movie itself brightens whenever Eloise or her flowers are onscreen.

The balance between love and death and moving forward while being stuck in the past is important and emotionally charged since everyone can relate yet at the same time it makes the film slightly uncomfortable viewing if you're getting over a loss yourself. And while I applauded its ambitious nature, ultimately it's way too much to pack into a movie.

Moreover, as Burke tries to own up to the guilt he feels and work through the pain, it never feels authentic and I couldn't help wishing it had done away with the seminar stuff or retooled it somehow since the relationship is more of a flirtation than love and the grief is so rushed, you get through all five stages in two minutes near the end which may work in a self help book by fake doctors but would never have been published as truth in Psychology Today.

This is especially obvious in a confessional scene literally onstage with Martin Sheen that sparked a couple of surprised laughs in the audience because it just didn't work. Likewise you could sense that even Eckhart knew it was too mixed of a bag in not only in this scene but a few other "group therapy" moments involving a terrific turn by Zodiac and Gran Torino actor John Carroll Lynch wherein Eckhart works overtime to try and make us believe that a man can be healed by one shopping trip to Home Depot.

Overall, the film marks an admirable effort that's half successful and more worthy of a rental than a ticket price aside from the fact that it's undeniably bolstered by the always watchable Eckhart and Aniston in two terrific roles. Unfortunately, the characters weren't served well and neither was the audience as in addition to the strange bedfellows of plot-juggling such polar-opposite events, the fact that part of Burke's road to recovery involves a multi-million dollar sell-out leaves us with a sour aftertaste of greed instead of the deliciousness of healing with love.

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Zodiac

Click Here to Read the More In-Depth Blu-ray Review

Director: David Fincher

Although I loved David Fincher’s Fight Club and Panic Room, I still remember being absolutely repulsed and terrified by the exploitative, disturbing Seven—so much so in fact that it was with great hesitation that I sat down to watch Zodiac—Fincher’s return to the serial killer genre. However, humans are advised to face their fears for a reason and I couldn’t have been more surprised or impressed by Zodiac which, despite a few brutal and gory crimes in the beginning to set the tone of obsession that will follow, quickly becomes what Roger Ebert justifiably called the “All the President’s Men of serial killer movies, with Woodward and Bernstein played by a cop and a cartoonist.” Opening with Paramount and Warner Brothers logos that IMDb reported were nearly identical to the ones used in the 1960’s, we are plunged back in time to a long hot summer where two young lovers are murdered in their local make-out spot in the San Francisco Bay Area. The killer phones the police with cold, yet giddy excitement filled with details of his crime and later decides to send letters and ciphers to local papers including The San Francisco Chronicle. Crime beat reporter Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.) begins his series of articles on the man who soon named himself Zodiac and proceeded to break his own pattern with two more murders seen in the first half hour that, although shocking, do not seem quite as exploitative or as painstakingly gruesome as the ones exhibited on a typical CSI or Law and Order spin off series. The sudden succession of crimes in the beginning admirably, as most critics noted, gets the traditional horror out of the way so that for the rest of the case we can get lost in the mystery as Avery along with former Eagle Scout, Chronicle cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) who later wrote the definitive book on the case begin trying to solve it. Their efforts consist largely of a love of research and bookwork that present a more academic side to the case, which is balanced out by the "just the facts" mentality and efforts of a talented group of police officers, including Anthony Edward’s Inspector William Armstrong and his compulsive animal cracker eating partner, the scene-stealing Mark Ruffalo’s Inspector Dave Toschi who movie buffs may recall was McQueen’s inspiration for Bullitt. The two inspectors try to coordinate their exchange of information with other local cops from nearby cities including Sgt. Jack Mulanax (Elias Koteas), and Capt. Ken Narlow (Donal Logue), among others. Although he’s a bit young for his role as Graysmith, there’s a certain natural boy scout quality about Jake Gyllenhaal that has us instantly on the admittedly nerdy hero’s side in his Clark Kent like quest that dangerously becomes such a preoccupation that he begins to receive anonymous calls at his home and his actions threaten the stability of the family he has with second wife Chloe Sevigny. Philip Baker Hall, Brian Cox, Adam Goldberg, Dermot Mulroney, Clea Duvall, James LeGros, Ione Skye (un-credited but her father Donovan’s "Hurdy Gurdy Man" is featured on the soundtrack) and a chilling turn by John Carroll Lynch as prime suspect Arthur Leigh Allen help us get lost in the compelling film with an admirable attention to detail that entrances viewers so much that it isn’t until later that one realizes the amount of visual artistry at work from former music video director David Fincher who’s a subtle stylist and received a much-deserved nomination for the 2007 Golden Palm award at the Cannes Film Festival. Further research into his deliberate choices revealed that he cast numerous actors in the role of the Zodiac so that, for each scene, it reflects the victims’ and witnesses' impression of the perpetrator. It’s these little touches that are so easily lost in the crisp high definition digital cinematography by Harris Savides that calls to mind the same look of the work of Michael Mann. As someone who was very unfamiliar with the case and like some movie fans just recall the name and the facts being used as fodder for Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry, it’s hard for me to judge whether or not viewers well-versed in the case will find it all too introspective and contemplative but it worked well for me and is one definite entry on the very short list of my favorite films of 2007; although sadly, I worry that it was released too early in the year to be first and foremost in the minds of Academy voters.