Idas e Vindas do Amor

As a disgruntledly (not a word, shut up) unemployed film critic, I must take drastic measures in concealing my opinion towards a movie you are going to wind up seeing regardless. This time, I have taken my single self to see Valentine's Day, to see if it can measure up to last year's star-sprinkled surprise-surprise hit comedy He's Just Not That into You. I wanted to see that if despite without the lovey-dovey person by my side (which has been a vacant position for a while) the movie can still deliver, entertain, and touch the soul.

Also, I wanted to see if people working at the theater would dedicate a bit of time from their ordinary day to point out that it's strange that I am watching a movie called Valentine's Day by myself. I approached the ticket counter and asked for my ticket. After momentary laughter the man at the counter presented me with my ticket. I then enter through the doors and approach the lady ripping the tickets and sending me in the right direction. After her laughter subdued, she pointed me to theater #1.

Valentine's Day works in the tradition of last year's February romantic success story, and Love Actually, a British dramatic rom-com that jump-started the technique of applying multiple love stories in a film. That way, if one story doesn't work, you have multiple other chances to still enjoy the movie. To spice things up, the movie contains one of the biggest casts of stars since the never-duplicated insanity of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. What other movie can boast the collaboration of Jennifer Garner, Julia Roberts, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Biel, Jamie Foxx, and even Shirley MacLaine?

But of course, when you have this many stars, that means so many stories; and less time for character development. This is where the film mostly disappoints, very little developing or changing from anyone associated with the movie. Without revealing too much, there is literally 10 or 11 (lost count) plot lines mixing and intertwining together in a span of just two hours. This equals an average of 12 minutes per story. In actuality however, some stories are actually shorter than others. Katherine Fugate had the right idea when writing the screenplay, but the execution wasn't the best considering that some stories worked and some were just boring to the core. Poor Garry Marshall can only do so much, even though his best days (Pretty Woman, Happy Days) are long gone.

The limited time for acting also diminished the performances of almost every single star in the movie. However, the acting performances of the younger tots (Taylor Swift, Emma Roberts, Taylor Lautner, Carter Jenkins) were much weaker when compared to the veterans Julia Roberts, Jamie Foxx, Shirley MacLaine, and Héctor Elizondo. One other note: Ashton Kutcher, Topher Grace, and Bradley Cooper are three men that given the little time in this movie delivered swell performances that was undermined only by the writing. Their comic timing kept the movie afloat when the flick was threatening to totally flounder.

Like I said before, some stories worked, and other stories were absolutely dreadful to watch. The high school-based stories in Valentine's Day were the weakest, shortest, and the most pointless. In the meantime, the Anne Hathaway/Topher Grace story and the conflict involving Kutcher, Alba, Jennifer Garner, and Patrick Dempsey were the most entertaining to watch. Nearly all the stories had their share of clichés, with only one of them containing a surprise or two. The chemistry wasn't that intense, because there was no time for it to happen. The dialogue was never allowed to intensify or dwell deeper into the concept of love. A few good one-liners here and there, but nothing really worth remembering.

Bottom Line: The problem with Valentine's Day is very simple: we've seen it before and after 2009 being such a good year for romantic comedies, the expectations are higher. It takes more than just a bunch of big stars to propel a rom-com to quality heights; you need strong writing, good chemistry, strong direction, and a hintage of unpredictability. That's how The Proposal, He's Just Not That Into You, The Ugly Truth, and especially (500) Days of Summer made 2009 one of the greatest years for romance in a long time. This was also the issue with Couple's Retreat, the last blockbuster romantic comedy of 09. Valentine's Day has its moments indeed (Anne Hathaway is hilarious), but don't expect it to be anything better than mediocre. Simply there were too many stories and most of them with less depth than a puddle.

And none of this criticism has to do with the fact that I saw the movie by myself.

Honestly.

Cluttered, sloppy romantic comedy would have benefited from the elimination of a few of its many stories. Mixed bag of performances, both Julia and Emma Roberts, Cooper, Dane are charismatic and do what they can to flesh out thin characters. Anne Hathaway and Topher Grace have a great chemistry and really could have supported their own independent romantic comedy. MacLaine and Elizondo are wasted in a throwaway story that does contain a nice twist. Several of the quality performers, like Queen Latifah and Kathy Bates are shoved in small parts strictly for marquee value. Most of the others range from adequate to vapid. Taylor Swift stands out for giving the most annoying performance. Let's hope that this is the beginning and the end of her acting career. One last thought, with all the talent available they chose to focus the largest portion of the film's story on someone as bland as Kutcher? Bad idea.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this film, but I watched it anyway, because I like a lot of the people in the cast. My overall thoughts on Valentine's Day was that it wasn't terrible but it was very uneven and I do have to agree with anyone who says Love Actually did it better, it did.

Starting off with Valentine's Day, it does have a great cast. Jennifer Garner and Anne Hathaway especially are very charming, and I liked the little boy who had a crush on Garner. It was also really nice to see Hector Elizondo and Shirley McLaine again, same with Patrick Dempsey and I also thought Taylor Swift was delightfully ditzy in her debut. I didn't mind Julia Roberts either, however the only ones I didn't like so much were Jessica Alba, who doesn't have that much to do and Taylor Lautner who was rather bland, and it seemed ironic that his character didn't want to take his shirt off, when in New Moon(horrible film by the way) Lautner spends most of the time with it off. Asides from the cast, Valentine's Day was nicely filmed and had a lovely soundtrack. And I thought several of the stories worked, especially Garner's.

However, I wasn't completely sure about the phone sex idea and Eric Dane's story is painfully underdeveloped. The script also has its weak spots with nothing really sticking out in the mind, in fact there were only a few amusing moments as the film is more bittersweet than funny, particularly the one in the restaurant with the conversation about the pig's meal. The film also drags badly, while the direction isn't quite as focused as it would have liked.

Overall, it isn't terrible, but it is very uneven. Worth seeing once or twice, but it isn't a movie for me that is to watch every day of the week. 6/10 Bethany Cox

I was the classic husband dragged to see this on Valentine's Day weekend as a goodwill gesture. It was every bit as bad as could be possibly imagined. Half of Hollywood's A List star as vacuous stereotypes, moronically obsessed with the holiday in question. This despite the fact they are all living millionaire lifestyles, with perfect tans and the whitest of teeth. It's Love Actually, without a sense of humour or any depth whatsoever. No- one and nothing is remotely realistic - every storyline has a trite and convenient resolution and none is convincing or interesting. There is a perfect and unlikely ratio of ethnicities and sexualities. The sex trade is entirely trivialised and sanitised. No-one stays upset about relationship breakdowns for more than one scene. People break into spontaneous dance sequences in which everyone knows the pre-rehearsed moves but the film doesn't have the conviction to show it for more than 3 seconds... Just utter pointless and patronising bilge...

Did you read that cast list? Gives the term 'star-studded' a new meaning. Imagine what kind of film you could make with all that talent. Well, Valentine's Day is not that film. Far from it in fact. This who's who of a cast hampers any chance of real emotion due to the need to share screen time among them all. When you start getting interested in a character you'll most likely not see them again for another 45 minutes, pretty annoying when there are so few likable characters in the first place.

What is perhaps the scariest is that despite a plethora of plots, subplots and sub-subplots – all intertwining somehow – there isn't a shred of originality. Sure, you might be surprised who Bradley Cooper hooks up with at the end, but one small unforeseen twist barely counts. Bulge and fluff replace characterization and narrative development whilst the corny dialogue comes off as cutesy more than cute. It all goes back to the bloated cast: with over 20 stars that need their quota of jokes, sobs and happy endings filled, it's majorly difficult to dedicate any real time to exploring the unique intricacies of love and loss. See the far superior Love Actually for how it's done.

Saving it from complete dreadfulness is a handful of these big names – probably not the ones you would suspect – who manage to squeeze a laugh from their one-dimensional roles. The two Taylor's, Lautner and Swift, play their love-struck high school couple with a cheerful amount of tongue-in-cheek; Kutcher proves his charisma can go a long way as a heartbroken florist; and Cooper and Roberts (Julia, that is) are intriguing as plane passengers who don't know each other. Biel should hang her head in shame though, her standout woeful performance surely an early front runner for this year's Razzies.

Save your money and revisit its British counterpart on DVD instead.

1.5 out of 5 (1 - Rubbish, 2 - Ordinary, 3 - Good, 4 - Excellent, 5 - Classic)