Valentine’s Day – Review

Many of us associate Valentine’s Day with the act of showering our loved ones with as many sappy and romantic gestures within the span of 24 hours as possible. Following the lives of several couples and individuals in the span of that one beloved/dreadful day, Valentine’s Day fluctuates with it’s good and bad that it turns into a strange balance, making for a some what enjoyable experience.

The Garry Marshall picture carries an all star-like cast that could have been cut down considerably. Almost all of the stories within the span of this one heart-filled day of the year have your interest. Sometimes one might be gone for so long you completely forget about it until it appears back on screen twenty to thirty minutes later. Granted, we all know how huge of a town Los Angeles can be, but juggling around so many characters and stories turns into a bit of a head ache to watch at times.

Out of the story lines that transpired in the film, the ones that were the best executed and enjoyable was with Jennifer Garner, Ashton Kutcher, Jessica Alba and Jessica Biel. We could have been fine by not getting a huge whiff of the Taylor/Taylor relationship on the big screen along with the teenage love segment with Emma Roberts, claiming the spot as the most boring portion of the film. Julia Roberts is completely wasted along with the seemingly minute full of screen time that Kathy Bates and Bradley Cooper get.

Reed (Kutcher) is the love sick puppy dog who is a funny opposite, in regards to characters, compared to the spiteful Kara (Biel) who embodies every other person who cannot take the sappiest Hallmark day of the year. Garry Marshall’s direction is jumbled except for when he deals with the story that intertwines Kutcher, Garner, Patrick Dempsey and Alba together. Perhaps if there were a bit more time taken into that segment rather than the less-than-memorable story between Anne Hathaway and Topher Grace, this would be tons more likable.

This is definitely a date movie that captures the pure sappiness of the so-called holiday. Despite the failed and smaller story lines, the main ones make up for them enough to warrant another possible viewing.

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