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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Love Happens
Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 26 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 12 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Romance
Written by:
Brandon Camp
Mike Thompson
Directed by: Brandon Camp
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 18, 2009
Running Time: 109 minutes, Color
Origin: USA | Canada
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for some language including sexual references
Starring Aaron Eckhart, Jennifer Aniston, Dan Fogler, Judy Greer, Joe Anderson, John Carroll Lynch, Frances Conroy, and Martin Sheen
Dr. Burke Ryan is on the precipice of a major multimedia deal, but the therapist who asks his patients to openly confront their pain is secretly unable to take his own advice. Eloise Chandler has sworn off men and decided to focus on her floral business. However, when she meets Burke at the hotel where he's speaking, there is an instant attraction. But will two people who have met the right person at exactly the wrong time be able to give love another chance? As each struggles with the hurt of love and loss, they realize that in order to move forward, they need to let go of the past. And if they can, they'll find that, sometimes, love happens when you least expect it. (Universal Studio)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
St. Louis Post-Dispatch Calvin Wilson
Although the film begins promisingly, it proves to be little more than a soap opera.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Dan Kois
More thoughtful than its cookie-cutter marketing campaign implies, and better than its awful title promises, "Love Happens" is the rare Hollywood romance concerned with emotions other than love at first sight.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson
The film contains almost no rough edges; thanks to decades of previous use, just about every shot and sequence is as polished as a riverbed stone.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Melissa Anderson
Eckhart has even less chemistry with Aniston than he did with fellow narcissist Catherine Zeta-Jones in 2007’s "No Reservations," going soft and gooey only when he and Martin Sheen, as Burke’s father-in-law, share a big cry.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Connie Ogle
An incredibly lazy movie -- but not an unbearable one, thanks to Aaron Eckhart's charm.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Love Happens announces itself as a romantic comedy but doesn't speak the language of love. Instead, it trades in the slogans of self-help procedural.
Read Full Review >Variety Brian Lowry
Excise the love story, and there's a pretty good movie buried within Love Happens struggling to get out, mostly to little avail.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole
Aniston's constituency will enjoy seeing her again in Love Happens . She's lovely and fun to be with, as always.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Love Happens is an oddly upbeat title for a movie that is surprisingly sad.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub
Delivers all the pain, melodrama and redemption that fans of the genre demand.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
The vital signs in Love Happens, a movie that feels likes a laboriously padded outline, are faint.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Robert Abele
That this superficial romance between a successful self-help author and a nurturing florist is also a film about overcoming the tragedy of losing a loved one only makes its clichéd insipidity that much more irksome.
Read Full Review >NPR Mark Jenkins
If that's the best Hollywood screenwriters can do, maybe they should sign up for a self-help seminar. Nothing focuses the mind like a little firewalking.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Stephen Farber
The title is a good indication of this movie's blandness and predictability.
Read Full Review >Empire Anna Smith
Falls between romance and drama without really satisfying either.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Is this a movie or a feature-length advertisement for Qwest? We're not just talking one product placement; this brand name is nearly omnipresent.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
I wish the movie made emotional sense, because it’s all about getting in touch with whatever’s holding you back, but it doesn’t.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
Structurally, this is as by-the-numbers as rom-coms get, right down to the wacky best friends, played by Judy Greer and Dan Fogler. For a while, it's low-key enough to be tolerable.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall
The dialogue is often grating, and some of the situations are distastefully cute, although John Carroll Lynch (Fargo) has a strong supporting turn as a grief workshop client.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Some may wonder why Jennifer Aniston keeps taking projects about single women unlucky in love. But the bigger question in Love Happens is why, with her pick of scripts, she chose one so utterly uninspired.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
No authentic emotion of any kind happens in this damp, Seattle-based romance, a fizzle for both stars.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
It might sound intriguing to root the saying, "Physician, heal thyself," in the plight of a hypocritical self-help guru, but the romantic drama Love Happens suffers from acute irony deficiency.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones
Love Happens? It depends on your definition of “love.” And “happens.” There isn’t much of either in this predictable, putzy drama.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
It's a limp romantic drama that occasionally lifts its drowsy head to attempt a wan smile, a picture that starts out being harmlessly dull and ends, somehow, in a place that feels insultingly manipulative.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
Love Happens is a weepie about the grieving process, mainly my own.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.3 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Ada M gave it a4:
Walter is perhaps the only good thing in the movie. He does a great job - perhaps he's got the best written character amongst the lot. The movie could have been better edited to make the audience have more sympathy with Eckhart - they did nothing to show that he's still missing his dead wife until 3/4 of the movie has already passed. I don't know whether or not Eckhart should be blamed, as his "I sympathise" look just don't look v sympathetic.
Jess E gave it an8:
I liked the movie. I don't know what everyone else is butt hurt and complaining about.
april h gave it a10:
Sorry folks.. But I about 30 other people in the showing all Loved the movie.. which included about 10 men. Everyone of us walked out saying we loved the movie.. Lucky I don't think much of 'Critics' reviews.. If I did, I wouldn't see 3/4 of the movies I do go watch..
Angelica C gave it an8:
I thought this was a wonderfully insightful movie. It's not the typical romantic movie that it portrays itself to be; so, in that sense, I can understand some people's disappointment. In a very unexpected way, it's a very deep look at a man's struggle with his wife's death and the journey he takes to face the truth. If you're sensitive like myself, you'll enjoy this movie and maybe come out learning a little about yourself.
Seth B. gave it a1:
Syrupy and stupid and boring. Not the actors fault either. At the end of the movie when one character starts that slow clap and others join in right at the climax of the movie I just wanted to kill the producer. Such recycled garbage.
Chad S. gave it a7:
No single character made me laugh more than the irrepressible Angie Tempura, the "Bitch, pleeeze" blogger(played by the recently fired Michaela Watkins), who relished the pan like a retarded Michiko Kakutani(the senior book critic for the New York Times), on NBC's "Saturday Night Live". What would Tempura say about "Love Happens"? For certainly there are many "bitch, pleeeze" moments that would drive any jaded filmgoer to churlish sarcasm. Burke Ryan(Aaron Eckhart), a best-selling self-help writer, is suffering in Seattle, the same city where he lost his wife in a car accident. At his seminar, the grief guru pays special attention to Walter(John Carroll Lynch), a guilt-ridden father, who sounds like he could have written "Tears in Heaven" had Eric Clapton not beaten him to it. Burke tells Walter that he's "stuck", an assessment which the likeminded author makes soon after his visit to the Space Needle. Oh, a metaphor. The Space Needle was a metaphor that links both men; they both have stuck needles and sound like broken records. Bitch, pleeeze. To help Walter escape from his bum groove, Burke, along with his seminar students, accompanies this former contractor to Home Depot. Bitch pleeeze. They help Walter become whole again by helping him fill out his tool belt. Bitch...it works; sometimes emotional hogwash and box jellyfish in a bathtub-like manipulation works, against your better judgement, against your will. Sometimes you have to turn off your inner Tempura and not be so jaded all the time.
Elaine C gave it an8:
Definitely the ubiquitous "chick flick," it's still very enjoyable if the viewer sees it with absolutely no expectations of pathos and drama. It lives up to its promise--the co-stars are very easy on the eyes and deliver a sweet little love story.
