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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, February 12, 2010

'Valentine's' all flowery, with little heart


By Roger Moore
McClatchy-Tribune News Service

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Topher Grace and Anne Hathaway play lovers, one of whom has a secret.

Warner Bros.

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'VALENTINE'S DAY'

PG-13, for some sexual material and brief partial nudity

125 minutes

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Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Jessica Biel and Eric Dane are among the long list of celebrity actors in this movie.

Warner Bros.

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Garry Marshall emptied his Facebook for "Valentine's Day," calling in favors, over-stuffing this overlong ode to love with Oscar winners, up-and-comers and top Internet bikini searches.

It's an American "Love Actually" without the warmth that writer-director Richard Curtis stuffs into his all-star confections, without the wit, without much love, actually.

A chaotic cluster of interconnected characters court, collide and crack up in Los Angeles in this "Crash"-for-Chocoholics. There's no real overarching theme, with most characters reaching an obvious conclusion to their dilemma, though Marshall's cast (Katherine Fugate scripted) still land a few one-liners.

Ashton Kutcher plays a florist who proposes to his "too good" for him girlfriend (Jessica Alba). He spends the day mooning over her to his employee (George Lopez) and best friend (Jennifer Garner). The best friend is all gooey-eyed for her valentine, a heart surgeon (Patrick Dempsey) who is always out of town on business and can't walk by fruit without picking it up and juggling it.

Subtle.

Jessica Biel plays a publicist who throws I Hate Valentine's Day parties.

Jamie Foxx is a cynical TV sports reporter sent out to gather "What Valentine's Day means to you" thoughts from Angelinos.

"Love is the only shocking act left on the planet," the florist tells him.

Queen Latifah is an agent whose new assistant (Anne Hathaway, having the time of her life) doubles as a phone-sex operator who services clients with a dazzling array of accents. Topher Grace is the new man in her life who doesn't know how she pays the bills.

On a plane, Julia Roberts is a soldier headed home on one-day leave, with Bradley Cooper as her handsome and too-curious seatmate.

Long-married grandparents (Shirley MacLaine, Hector Elizondo) are raising their grandson, who deals with his first crush with the help of a teen nanny (Emma Roberts), who plans to lose her virginity to her beau on that romantic day.

Subtle.

Quaint L.A. settings (a cemetery outdoor movie screening, the city flower market), roses, adorable moppets, moist-eyed leading ladies and don't-forget-the-ducklings fill the frame of this gaudy Hallmark card of a movie.

Few of this crowded cast (I've left many out) make much of an impression. Marshall could have made a cute movie out of the Kutcher-Alba-Dempsey-Garner-Hathaway and Grace characters, keeping high school goofs Taylor Lautner and Taylor Swift for their doe-eyed silliness.

The laughs are thin and might have been bigger had this emphasized the crankier characters overcoming their cynicism, maybe retitling this "I Hate Valentine's Day." But that's been taken by an earlier botched romance set on a day that never seems to host a decent Hollywood romantic comedy.