Valentines Day Movie Review
Director Gary Marshall’s latest edition to the romantic comedy genre “Valentines Day” wasn’t up to the standard that I was expecting. I must say I felt like a little bit let down because with a cast of some of Hollywoods biggest’s names Valentine’s Day didn’t hit the notes like its predecessor “Love Actually”.
“Valentine’s Day” follows the lives of 23 characters throughout their lives on you guessed Valentine’s day, we start with Ashton Kutcher’s character the florist, who is the closet thing the film has to a main character who wakes up that morning and decides to propose to his girlfriend (Jessica Alba), we then move onto Ashton’s best friend played by Jennifer Garner as an elementary school teacher who is newly in love with her married boyfriend Patrick Dempsey and blissfully unaware that when he says he is rushing off to surgery he is actually rushing home to his wife. We then move onto the teenage characters in the story where we have high school senior played by Julia Roberts’s niece, Emma Roberts wanting to have sex with her boyfriend and both Taylor Lautner and Taylor Swift as boyfriend and girlfriend who I feel are only in the movie for teen appeal.
Then there is Jessica Biel who hates Valentine’s Day and is trying to deal with the fact she is alone, Jamie Foxx is also thrown into the mix as sports news reader who is trying to work out the next career move from football player Eric Dane. Queen Latifah plays a PR rep who is dealing with complications from Eric Dane’s character and boss for the day to aspiring poet Anne Hathaway who moonlights as a phone sex worker while trying to evaluate her previous one night stand with Topher Grace. Shirley McLaine and Hector Elizondo show us that love can last into the old age while looking after child actor Bryce Robinson’s character who pays $13 to send roses to the love of his life and Julia Roberts and Bradley Cooper are plane buddies travelling back to Los Angeles to spend the day with their significant other.
If after all of that you are confused, I don’t really blame you- this movie unfortunately doesn’t take the time to really focus on any of the characters stories and you sometimes feel as though you are being pulled from one to the other just as it is starting to get interesting. I felt with all the big names in “Valentine’s Day” the outcome was a little like 2009’s “He’s Just Not That Into You” which again crammed some of Hollywood’s finest into one and didn’t really do any of them justice.
“Valentine’s Day”, don’t get me wrong was an easy movie to watch and one that I will probably see again if only for watching the cast work together however I don’t think it is a need to see at the cinemas like some other chick flicks have been and as much as I hate to say it I was disappointed when I left the cinema.