Love Happens

Drama
3 stars
This is not exactly a happy-feel-good romance type flick and I wouldn’t quite classify it as a “chick flick” either. Aaron Eckhart plays a sad but slick and polished grief counseling guru who doesn’t follow his own advice, and he’s stopping in Seattle to lead a grief workshop. Jennifer Aniston plays a far more interesting character as a local florist with bad taste in men. Why Aniston decides to go on a date with a guy who is clearly only in town for a brief stop and why she tries to help him after a really bad date is a mystery to me. Most of the film focuses on the grief coping workshop and Eckhart’s own pain with memories of his late wife. It’s not a bad movie but not really what I call a romance or even a “good cry” movie (a la Nicholas Sparks) though there is a sniffle worthy scene towards the end. I would have liked to have seen more of Aniston’s character and her background and less of the folks in the grief workshop – and definitely less of the fat sloppy guy who works with Eckhart. Not bad, but wait for video or cable.