Love Hurts

Once upon a time there was a very content man. He was married to his high school sweetheart, he had a thriving, lucrative medical practice, and he had a popular, low maintenance son. But one day, when he wasn’t paying attention, his wife left him, moved in with her best friend, and started getting chummy with a gardener. This was a wake up call for Ben, played by Richard E. Grant.

As Ben is reading his Dear John letter, he is shaky with disbelieve. He begins to hyperventilate when his son (Johnny Pacar) enters the room and hands him a paper bag, “Mom said you’d probably need this.” Then the reality hits him. He is out of touch. Somehow over the years his wife (Carrie-Anne Moss) became a woman he no longer knows, and in front of him was his son, a total stranger. He goes off the deep end in a full, romantic-comedy style depression and becomes a mess.

The next thing that happens is equally “Rom-Com”; Justin, the son, takes pity on his father and tries to get him back into the dating world. But, after a resounding success, and a bevy of sexy women, he realizes that his dad still loves his mom, so he tries to help him win her back. On the other side, Ben makes an effort to help his son bridge the gap from teenage lothario, to serious relationship material when his son falls for a beautiful Russian ballerina. Meanwhile, the wife is being protected by her earth-mother best friend (Camryn Manheim) while she sorts out her feelings and tries to decide if there is anything left in her marriage worth keeping. This is all stuff we’ve seen before, it’s just in a bright, new, shiny package.

This movie did not work for me, although there were others around me laughing heartily. I guess I was just expecting more. I found Carrie-Anne Moss very interesting, but her character was shoved in the background while the story focused on the father and son. I also thought that the stable of comedic actresses such as Jenna Elfman, Janeane Garofalo, and Rita Rudner, were fun, but cast in throw away parts and deserved better. There were some really nice moments in the film, but most of it was too formulaic for my tastes. If I wanted to see sit-com style acting, I could have stayed home and watched TV. I was looking for something with a little more depth and understanding.

Rating: Rent It Watch it on TV where it belongs