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	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.... (more)
Production Status :	Released
Genres :	Comedy, Drama and Romance
Running Time :	1 hr. 49 min.... (more)

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• Aniston, Eckhart fail to click in "Love Happens"

  LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – The generic title is a good indication of this movie's blandness and predictability. "Love Happens" might just as well have been called "Falling in Love" or "

  ;Love Affair," but those titles have been used.

  "Love Happens" isn't even an accurate description of the movie, which opens Friday via Universal. Although it is being sold as a romantic comedy, Jennifer Aniston's role is distinctly secondary, and she has zero chemistry with Aaron Eckhart.

  He plays Burke Ryan, a self-help guru and best-selling author trying to help people recover from the devastating loss of a loved one. Burke still is wrestling with his wife's death three years earlier; his grief prompted him to launch a lucrative business. While he's conducting a weeklong seminar in Seattle, the city where his wife died, he meets Aniston's Eloise, a local florist, and she helps him to start heeding the advice he has been feeding to others.

  But the romance seems more of an afterthought than a central strand of the story. Although Aniston's name on the marquee might draw a few people to the theater, "Love" isn't strong enough as comedy or drama to sustain audience interest.

  The script by Brandon Camp and Mike Thompson (who also composed another piece of inspirational goop, "Dragonfly") fails to make the basic premise credible. Because Burke mainly spews cliches about finding the strength to move on, it's hard to understand how he has developed such a passionate following. Perhaps if the film were conceived as a satire of the self-help movement, this wouldn't matter, but we are meant to take Burke seriously as a true savant who can heal everyone but himself. But his nuggets of advice are so superficial that we never really believe in Burke's celebrity status. While exploring Burke's psychological history, the film builds toward a surprise revelation that has been pretty transparent from the start. There simply isn't enough drama to sustain a nearly two-hour movie, and Camp's plodding direction only makes the picture seem more tedious.

  Eckhart and Aniston are likable performers, but they don't click as a romantic duo. Martin Sheen brings his innate dignity to the role of Burke's father-in-law, who magically turns up just when Burke is in desperate need of a hug. The best performance comes from John Carroll Lynch as a grieving father; he coaxes the most poignant drama from the undernourished script. Frances Conroy has a brief scene as Eloise's mother; clearly, most of her part was left on the cutting-room floor.

  The film is a glossy but uninspired production, with stock shots of the Seattle Space Needle to provide a sense of place. Editor Dana E. Glauberman, who did a crack job of editing "Up in the Air," can't find the right pacing for this lugubrious drama. The film bears some resemblance to "As Good As It Gets" and last summer's "The Answer Man," two other films about hypocritical literary lions, but it cries out for the wit that enlivened those movies.

  (Editing by DGoodman at Reuters)

  ...(more) - 09 19 2009 2:47AM

• Review: `Love Happens,' as do soggy cliches

  LOS ANGELES – Love supposedly happens in "Love Happens." We'll have to take their word for it.

  Aaron Eckhart and Jennifer Aniston are so utterly lacking in chemistry with each other (and they're both pretty bland i

  ndividually) that it's hard to discern any genuine emotion. What first-time director Brandon Camp gives us instead is a cliche-addled romantic drama that's short on both romance and drama, one that's filled with soggy platitudes and contrived catharsis.

  Camp also wrote the script with Mike Thompson, which contains such unimaginative, heavy-handed metaphors as walking across hot coals, shopping at Home Depot as a means of rebuilding a life and setting a caged bird free in the woods. It's a painfully earnest slog reminiscent of such gooey fare as "Pay It Forward," one that belongs on cable, if anywhere, and probably wouldn't have seen the light of day theatrically if not for the involvement of its two main stars.

  Eckhart plays self-help guru Burke Ryan, a widower who wrote a book about coping with loss after his wife's death in a car accident three years ago. Now he's a nationwide sensation, playing to sold-out crowds at cult-like seminars and helping others work through their own grief.

  Aniston co-stars as a florist named Eloise, who creates the flower arrangements at the hotel where Burke's Seattle workshops are taking place. Both are apprehensive about falling in love again, which means that naturally they're meant to do so with each other. But first, they must meet in an obligatory cute way (by physically bumping into each other in a hotel hallway), then bicker ever-so briefly (the movie's awkward attempt at creating sexual tension) before settling into a boring relationship over the few days he's in town.

  Rather obviously, since Burke is supposed to have the answers for everyone else, he has none for himself. "Love Happens" hits the hypocrite angle hard at first by having him knock back Grey Goose early and often, even though he professes to be a teetotaler. The script even requires him to preach, "Alcohol is no more of a cure-all than a Band-Aid on a bullet wound."

  But then it abandons this secret, leaving us to wonder for the majority of the picture who Burke really is and whether he's tormented by his lies. He passes around the "candle of truth" at his seminars, requiring his followers to dig deep and work through their pain, when — you guessed it — he's the one who needs to be holding that candle the most. "Love Happens" in no way takes advantage of the dark or dangerous attributes that have made Eckhart compelling in the past.

  Meanwhile, Eloise falls in line with a distressingly large number of Aniston roles. She gets a chance to show a little zing off the top in bantering with Eckhart but then she winds up being the same sort of supportive friend/girlfriend/wife she's played in movies ranging from "Rock Star" and "Bruce Almighty" to "Marley & Me" and "He's Just Not That Into You." Other movies ("The Good Girl," "Friends With Money") have made use of the fact that she's capable of more than showing up and looking good. It can be done.

  Here, there's so little to her character (and to Burke) that you don't care whether they wind up together, even though that's inevitable. Eloise's stand-out personality trait is that she scrawls arcane words on the walls behind those generically pleasing hotel pictures. The inspiration for this habit is never explained.

  That's not quirky. That's vandalism.

  "Love Happens," a Universal Pictures release, is rated PG-13 for some language including sexual references. Running time: 110 minutes. Zero stars out of four.

  ___

  Motion Picture Association of America rating definitions:

  G — General audiences. All ages admitted.

  PG — Parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

  PG-13 — Special parental guidance strongly suggested for children under 13. Some material may be inappropriate for young children.

  R — Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

  NC-17 — No one under 17 admitted.

  ...(more) - 09 18 2009 2:32PM

• Review: What happens to love when trust is gone

  "A Change in Altitude" (Little, Brown and Company, 320 pages, $26.99), by Anita Shreve: No one is better at gently, but thoroughly probing the interior life of her characters than Anita Shreve.

  In her latest book, "A Cha

  nge in Altitude," she traces the effects of distrust and tragedy on a newlywed couple also trying to deal with life in a strange country. Margaret and Patrick leave for Kenya where Patrick has a fellowship in equatorial medicine at Nairobi Hospital. They see the trip as a great adventure to start their married life.

  A plumbing problem in the cottage they rent forces them to move in temporarily with their landlords, Arthur and Diana, a British couple that Margaret finds slightly intimidating.

  Arthur and Diana propose climbing Mount Kenya, a difficult and dangerous climb that Margaret is especially unprepared for, but she and Patrick agree.

  As they have gotten to know each other, Arthur has shown interest in Margaret. It may only be friendly, but it also stirs jealousy in Diana and Patrick. When Margaret and Arthur are found holding hands after a night in a climbing hut, Diana's fury leads to a devastating accident.

  Patrick blames Margaret, telling her that Arthur's interest in her, and her failure to stop it, caused the accident.

  "If you and Arthur hadn't been holding hands and sleeping close to each other, Diana wouldn't have had the anger to do what she did. I believe that," Patrick tells her.

  Margaret questions herself as well, and wonders how her marriage can survive.

  As Patrick spends more time in his studies and work, Margaret begins to understand the complex country and people around her. She gets a job — over Patrick's objections — as a photographer at the Kenya Tribune, a newspaper that is not in the favor of the country's leaders.

  As she is drawn into the work, she is also drawn to a reporter at the newspaper. He is Rafiq Hameed, the son of a Pakistani father and Welsh mother, and a man she admires professionally and personally. He is also someone she can finally talk to about the incident on the mountain and its aftermath.

  "A Change in Altitude" reflects many of Shreve's familiar themes: loss and grief, the relationship between a man and woman, and how one moment can change a life forever.

  Shreve weaves a strong mix of exotic Africa and interesting characters, producing a potent story that will keep readers thinking about them long after the last page of the novel.

  ...(more) - 10 7 2009 8:28AM

• Howard Stern Hitched in All-Star Wedding

  Los Angeles (E! Online) - It's happened—someone has finally made an honest man of Howard Stern.

  After a lengthy engagement, the Sirius Satellite shock jock has taken the marital plunge with longtime girlfriend Beth Os

  trosky, tying the knot in an A-list private event at New York City's famed Le Cirque restaurant Friday night.

  Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos topped the guest list, with Consuelos, who became an ordained minister over the summer, performing the ceremony.

  Jimmy Kimmel, Sarah Silverman, Adam Carolla, Barbara Walters, Billy Joel and wife Katie Lee, Joan Rivers, Stern's radio cohosts Robin Quivers and Artie Lang, Chevy Chase, Donald and Melania Trump and John Stamos were among the event's 180 esteemed attendees.

  Consuelos wasn't the only one pulling double duty: Joel sang a song and Chase delivered an X-rated toast following the ceremony.

  Ostrosky donned a Marquesa wedding dress for the big day, which has been something of a long time coming.

  The 54-year-old radio personality popped the question to the 36-year-old model-actress on Valentine's Day 2007.

  But as far back as 2006, Stern announced on his radio show that he and Ostrosky had already tied the knot, only to say later that it was a prank.

  On Aug. 23, a family celebration at the couple's Hamptons home led some press to assume that the duo had quietly taken their trip down the aisle, though Ostrosky later revealed it was simply a celebration of their impending nuptials.

  I's the first marriage for Ostrosky and the second for Stern, who split from first wife Alison in 2000. For years after, he famously vowed he would never marry again, a flip-flop promise he explained away during a trip to the Late Show With David Letterman earlier this year.

  "I'm a hypocritical liar, as you know," Stern said. "Things change, love happens, love blossoms."

  (Originally published on Oct. 3, 2008 at 9:25 p.m. PT)

  ...(more) - 10 7 2008 7:13AM

• Kids comedy "Meatballs" reigns at box office

  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs," a new 3D animated feature based on a popular children's book, shone brightest at the weekend box office in North America on Sunday, overshadowing

  flops starring Matt Damon, Jennifer Aniston and Megan Fox.

  "Meatballs" earned an estimated $30.1 million during the three days since it opened on Friday, said Sony Pictures Animation, a unit of Sony Corp. Industry forecasters were looking for the film to open in the $25 million-$30 million range.

  The film is based on the 1978 book by Judi and Ron Barrett, in which a nerdy outcast invents a device that sends hamburgers, pizzas and pancakes dropping from the heavens.

  Meanwhile, Damon and Aniston suffered their worst openings in years with "The Informant!" and "Love Happens," respectively. "Jennifer's Body," the headlining debut of "Transformers" hottie Fox, was dead on arrival.

  "The Informant!" -- a Steven Soderbergh-directed comedy-drama based on the true story of a mentally disturbed government informant played by Damon -- opened at No. 2 with $10.5 million. Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc, had hoped the movie would open in the low-teen millions, but noted that it cost just $20 million to make.

  Damon's previous low was the $9.9 million start for his Christmas 2006 release "The Good Shepherd," which went on to earn $60 million.

  "Love Happens," a romantic comedy pairing Aniston with Aaron Eckhart," was No. 4 with $8.5 million. The $18 million picture was released by Universal Pictures, a unit of General Electric Co.

  Aniston had been on a roll with such hits as "Marley and Me" and "The Break Up," which both opened with more than $30 million. Her latest effort is her worst since the $3.5 million bow of her Christmas 2005 romantic comedy "Rumor Has It."

  "Jennifer's Body," a horror-comedy starring Fox as a cannibalistic high-school girl, followed at No. 5 with $6.8 million. It had been expected to open at No. 2 in the mid-teen range. The $16 million film was released by 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp.

  Last weekend's champ, Tyler Perry's "I Can Do Bad All By Myself," claimed the No. 3 spot with $10.1 million. Its 10-day haul stands at $37.9 million. The film was released by Lionsgate, a unit of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.

  (Editing by Todd Eastham)

  ...(more) - 09 21 2009 12:47PM