From the Friday, Sept. 18 Oregonian....
At last! A film that answers the eternal question: What if motivational speaker Tony Robbins was the subject of a rom-com?
The unfortunately titled "Love Happens" concerns a very Robbins-like grief counselor/motivational guru (Aaron Eckhart). He wrote a book called "A-Okay!" He's in Seattle, about to close a huge publishing deal. He's also hosting a workshop in which he spouts clichés and makes people walk over hot coals to help them get over their dead loved ones.
Enter a florist with a quirky hobby (Jennifer Aniston)! They meet cute! The court cute! There's a late-film crisis! Eckhart is finally forced to confront his own grief! The soundtrack drips sap! There's some weird stuff involving a parrot!
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. But late in the film, things get pathetically melodramatic. This includes long digressions into the grief process of one workshop attendee (John Carroll Lynch), the aforementioned foolishness with the parrot, and, I kid you not, tearful confessions in a crowded room followed by yet another one of those moments where someone stands up and slow-claps until everyone else joins in. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, well, watch this.) If "Love Happens" accomplishes nothing else -- and it doesn't -- I hope it finally kills the slow-clap scene. Forever.
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Grade: D-plus; 109 min.; rated PG-13 for some language including sexual references.
'Love Happens' (The Oregonian, Friday, Sept. 18, 2009)
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