Sometimes Love Does Happen

Aaron Eckhart and Jennifer Aniston star in the romantic drama Love Happens. When a self-help author arrives in Seattle to teach a sold-out seminar, he unexpectedly meets the one person who might finally be able to help him help himself.

Eckhart plays Burke Ryan, a widower who has turned his grief into something positive after his wife died in a car crash. Managed by the stressed out Lane (Dan Fogler), he's now a successful self-help guru. Author of the best selling 'A-Okay!', he also runs seminars to help others cope with loss of loved ones and is about to see his work syndicated nationally. Self-confident without being slimy, he seems modelled partly on Tony Robbins. When he arrives in Seattle, however, for his latest seminar, Burke begins to unravel. It doesn't help that this city is where his late spouse hails from - and when he encounters her father (Martin Sheen) it becomes clear that Burke hasn't stayed in touch with his in-laws since his wife's death. Amid all of this, he meets Eloise Chandler (Jennifer Aniston), a local florist who supplies flowers to the hotel where he is lecturing. While she's sworn off men, he begins his pursuit of her - and initially meets with resistance.

If their pairing off is as predictable as it is dull, fortunately it is secondary to the storyline dealing with Burke's own emotional problems - as he begins to realize he has yet to come to terms with the loss of his wife. There's also a particularly compelling subplot involving one of his seminar attendees, Walter (John Carroll Lynch), who lost his young son after he died on his own construction site. Lynch, the heavy-set actor probably best known as Marge's husband Norm in the Coens' Fargo, gives a memorable, moving performance. All of this goes to make Love Happens feel rather schizophrenic. Romantic comedy cliches abound - Eloise even has the wisecracking friend (Judy Greer). But ultimately the film emerges as a tearjerker, with Eckhart and Sheen particularly good in the final climactic scene. As for Aniston, she does what she does perfectly well - but that isn't saying much. Indeed, the most complicated function she performs here is arranging flowers, proving how little her character seems to matter to the story. As a romance story, Love Happens is nothing special, with the spark between Eckhart and Aniston almost non-existent. But as a drama about grief, it's much more interesting, though the blend of both does not always sit easily. This one was just barely likable so, it gets a 3 on my "Go See" scale.