TinaJohnson01172010 — 16 years ago(February 23, 2010 05:38 AM)

Film Review: Valentines Day
By Kait
It seems like a foolproof concept to reel in the romantic-at-heart: an all-star line-up of attractive romantic comedy veterans and several story lines exploring love, lust and heartbreak released just before one of the most overly sentimental holidays of the year. Valentines Day has some box office lure, but can it back that up?
The characters and their stories stem off from Reed Bennett (Ashton Kutcher,) a popular florist who interacts with friends and customers at a breakneck pace on the busiest day for his business but still finds time to revel in his own engagement to Morley (Jessica Alba). From these, were introduced to the storylines of his friends, including Julia (Jennifer Garner), the friends of his friends and the likable strangers they all bump into along the way.
As in all multi-story films, some characters storylines to be much more intriguing than others. My favorites included Liz (Anne Hathaway), a receptionist who tries to keep her second job moonlighting as an adult phone entertainer secret from her new boyfriend, Jason (Topher Grace) as well as Kate (Julia Roberts) and Holden (Bradley Cooper), two strangers on a long flight to Los Angeles who are seemingly unconnected to the storyline until were hit with a few twists at the end of the film.
As far as hilarity goes, the overall award goes to Alex (Carter Jenkins) who suffers some traumatic experiences while trying to coordinate some private time (ahem!) with his girlfriend Grace (Emma Roberts).
While the film is enough to make you feel warm and fuzzy inside, it feels a bit plagiarized. Valentines Day is basically an American version of the popular Love, Actually, but this time the Love is all around message is lost in a copious amount of fluff for most characters. One of the final scenes is extremely reminiscent of the ending of P.S. I Love You, which ruined the moment for me.
Valentines Day is a lighthearted movie for those of us in need of a few laughs and some perspective on love, but if youre looking for originality, you may want to search elsewhere!
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