Valentines Day

Here’s one of those extremely feel good romantic comedies. An out and out chick flick. Minor tear jerker. But what it does give you is a slightly different perspective. The idea of course being what happens on Valentines Day. But with a slight twist. What happens when u get dumped or find out that the love of your life has cheated on you or that the love of your life is actually old enough to be your mother or you have no clue why you are in love with the person but you still are or you realize that your current boyfriend is married with 2 kids or you meet the one meant for you doing something that you really don’t want to be doing…. 6 such stories intertwined form the basic premise of Valentines Day.


Now I am a self confessed romantic and missed out on the movie when it released about 6 months back. But got myself the DVD anyways as soon as it released a couple of weeks back.

The story begins with Reed Bennett (Ashton Kutcher) who in typical V Day style starts off his day by proposing to Morley Clarkson (Jessica Alba) who says yes. Reed is a florist who has his own reasonable size hand me down business from his granddad and is one of the few people in the world who is always happy. Obviously Morley says yes but much to the surprise of most people who know Reed for reasons best known to them. It is very typical of most of your friends who don’t tell you in as many words that the woman who u think is the one is probably not actually THE ONE.

Reed's best friend is Julia Fitzpatrick (Jennifer Garner) who is currently dating Dr. Harrison Copeland (Patrick Dempsey). Julia’s close friend is Kara (Jessica Biel) who is a PR specialist for NFL player Sean Jackson (Eric Dane) and is having a tough time deciding whether to continue with his career or not. Kara does not believe in V Day and spends it each time throwing a “I Hate Valentines Day” party. Julia also teaches at a school where Edison (Bryce Robinson) is a primary school student. Edison stays with his grandparents Edgar (Hector Elizondo) and Estelle (Shirley MacLaine) who spend V Day every year by watching a movie @ a Cemetery which is actually top draw on V Day. Edison’s baby sitter Grace (Emma Roberts) believes she has found her THE ONE and is planning to lose her virginity on the same day to Alex (Carter Jenkins). Grace’s best friend is Felicia (Taylor Swift) an 18 year old bimbette who is totally in love with the school’s star athlete Willy (Taylor Lautner) for purely superficial reasons.

Sean’s agent is Paula Thomas (Queen Latifah) who portrays herself as a self confessed class A bitch of a boss. But her stand in secretary Liz (Anne Hathaway) finds out that beneath that tough exterior is actually a soft person. Liz moonlights as an Adult “Remote Entertainer” (Phone Sex operator ) and has recently met Jason (Topher Grace – Christopher for short… gah!!!!) who is a mail delivery man in Kara’s office.

Kara’s business associate is another self confessed “player” Kelvin Moore(Jamie Foxx) who is the 2nd best correspondent of the local sports station and avoids doing the rounds on V Day coz he is secretly waiting for THE ONE (yet again).

Lastly, Sean’s best friend Holden (Bradley Cooper) is a stinking rich man who is on a flight back home and is seated next to Capt. Kate Hazeltine (Julia Roberts)

Phew… I believe I have managed to successfully cover all characters in the movie for sure. No point in explaining what happens in this melee of relationships. Its upto you to find out. If u are not the rom com kinds then avoid this like the plague. If you are then u will definitely like to see this once. Can watch on the tube whenever a movie channel decides to play it. No need to really own it despite the fact that Garry Marshall has directed it. Not really up with his best movies like Pretty Woman, Frankie and Johnny, The Other Sister, Raising Helen etc. Garry Marshall is a specialist in Rom Coms for sure but this one is not his stand out performance by far. Long way to go to catch up with the likes of Nancy Meyers who gives us amazing rom coms every single time.

The casting, however, is probably perfect. The likes of Kathy Bates who is the only person not shown as romantically inclined (Kelvin’s boss) have a screen time of less than 2 mins and leaves a powerful impact. What has helped Marshall is that each actor is on her/his own quite wonderful and therefore gives their best.

Good movie to get your valentine to see. Especially if you would like to get brownie points. But overall 5 on 10 for this one.