Thursday, October 1, 2009

Day #76 - Love Happens



So tonight I was headed for the movies - I was hoping to see Bright Star but ended up seeing Love Happens, which was fine since I wanted to see it anyway! I'm not a big Jennifer Aniston fan - I guess I'm neutral really, she just doesn't do much for me. Aaaaanyway, Aaron Eckhart DOES do something for me so it's all good :) Here we are again with a movie that was marketed one way and in reality was something else. I was hoping for a cute romantic comedy and ended up with a romantic drama-comedy, a dramady? It was good though, I really enjoyed it.

Movies like this leave me thinking about at what point the script decided to go a certain direction. The story in this movie is actually pretty moving and has a lot of potential for a deeper exploration of human emotion. If you took away the gimicks and the cliches, it becomes a solid drama....but that's not what they went for, so we end up with a good romantic dramady instead of a great drama...thoughts? I would like to take the script and give it to PT Anderson - add some true reactions and reality and see what you end up with. Just a thought.

In a nutshell, Aaron Eckhart plays Burke, a motivational speaker of sorts. Burke wrote a book called A-OK and holds seminars for people who are trying to deal with the loss of a loved one. Since he lost his wife in a car accident, he seemingly has had to cope with the same feelings as his audience. However, we come to find out that he has not practiced what he preaches and is still holding on to his wife's death. While in Seattle, his hometown, for a seminar, he meets a local florist named Eloise. Eloise helps Burke to confront some of his unresolved issues and by the end of the movie he has come clean to his audience and to Eloise. The movie is definitely sad and I cried a few times - doesn't take much these days!

1 comment:

  1. I like romantic comedies...but romantic DRAMAdies are my very favorite kind of movie. That being said, I am REALLY picky about romantic dramas. I tend to like movies that explore the really deep and sometimes tragic sides of love and romance and life and MOST movies don't go that far. So I tend to hate most romantic dramas even though it's my favorite TYPE of movie...does that make sense? So I guess I play the extremes - either give me a light hearted romantic comedy or a tragic love story. The movies that are in between cause me a lot of irritation. Sounds snobby, and I know I'm really picky...but that's how I feel :)

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