Movie Review- Valentine’s Day (2010)

Today is Valentine’s Day and, since to day is Valentine’s Day, I decided to review a romance movie names after today’s holiday, Valentine’s Day.

Valentine’s Day is a 2010 romantic comedy movie written by Kathrine Fugate, Abby Kohn, and Marc Silverson. The movie was directed by Gary Marshall, who is known for working as a director and screen writer from movies and TV shows such as Happy Days and Pretty Woman.

The plot of the movie follows many people throughout one Valentine’s Day. The characters, played by many well known actors and actress such as Julia Roberts, Jamie Foxx, Jessica Alba, Patric Dempsey, Anne Hathaway, and Aston Kutcher to name a few, have different mindsets and frustrations about the day. Everyone’s story is completely related to each others’, but the the stories are related due to the interactions of the characters throughout their day.

Because of this, nobody is specifically a “main character” or “main couple”, but certain characters and their love lives are more prominent than others. The characters’ story that stood out to me as the “main couple” of the movie involves two characters, Reed Bennett (plaid by Aston Kutcher) and Julia Fitzpatrick (plaid by Jennifer Garner) and their love lives. They are also two of the first characters introduced in the movie and the last characters to finally find love.

When I watched Valentine’s Day for the first time in 2010, I didn’t like it. At all. The problem is the story is hard to understand unless you pay close attention to the movie. After watching it several times over the years, it began to make more sense, but it takes time to develop an understanding of the plot, the characters, and how the character’s interaction influences other character’s decisions or the situations they face over the course of the day.

Also, I didn’t like the jokes as much as other Gary Marshall films such as The Princess Diaries. Although The Princess Diaries, and most of Gary Marshall’s movies and TV shows, had a different writer, I still hoped the movie would be really funny in a silly, ironic sort of way. Although there were jokes that poked fun at the irony of the situations, some of the problems some of the characters have in love are more serious than light hearted. For an example, Jennifer Garner’s character has a boyfriend that is actually a cheater. Over the course of the day, the boyfriend’s true colors are revealed. This, and other more serious love problems in the movie, made it hard for me to laugh at the jokes or the funny, ironic situations.

Even though I didn’t like the movie, in recent years I began to want to watch the movie over and over again. It was party because I missed Gary Marshall’s signature way of storytelling and because I really wanted to figure out why I didn’t like the movie the first time I saw it. After watching it several times over the years, I began to realize the complexity of the movie’s plot and the jokes that I didn’t think was funny back in 2010 is, indeed, the reason why I still don’t like the movie.

Despite this, I still think people should watch it, but for certain reasons. If you like Gary Marshall films, then you should watch it. If you like any of the A-list actors in the movie, you should watch it. If you like Taylor Swift, who made her acting debut in the movie and met Taylor Lautner while filming this movie (And later dated him), then you really should watch this movie. (Especially if you want to understand or learn more about her dating life and the ex’s she writes about in her songs) But, if you’re looking for a funny romantic comedy to watch with someone special, or a group of friends, please look into watching a different movie.

Well, that’s all for now! Thank you for reading!

Disclaimer: All the information about this movie, such as director, writer, or actor names, was found online via the Internet Movie Data Base (IMDb) or articles found from websites such as http://www.rogerebert.com and Rotten Tomatoes.