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Director Garry Marshall is romcom royalty, with a resume full of classic chick pleasers—everything from Pretty Woman to Beaches to The Princess Diaries. If offered a part in a Garry Marshall movie, no one in Hollywood would turn it down—as clearly evidenced by Marshall’s latest film, Valentine’s Day.
Valentine’s Day features a massive ensemble cast in a tangled web of stories that take place in Los Angeles on Valentine’s Day. It all starts with Reed (Ashton Kutcher), a florist who begins his busiest day of the year by proposing to his girlfriend, Morley (Jessica Alba). For some reason, though, everyone’s surprised that she said yes—especially Reed’s best friend, Julia (Jennifer Garner).
Julia, meanwhile, is basking in the glow of her new romance with a handsome doctor (Patrick Dempsey). When he tells her that he’s got to spend Valentine’s Day working in San Francisco, she decides to fly out for the night to surprise him.
And then there’s Kara (Jessica Biel), a publicist who’s planning her annual I Hate Valentine’s Day party. And sportscaster Kelvin (Jamie Foxx), who’s sent out to do a fluffy Valentine’s Day feature. And Jason (Topher Grace), whose new girlfriend, Liz (Anne Hathaway), isn’t what he thinks she is. And Kate (Julia Roberts), an Army captain who’s flying home for just one important day.
But, really, that’s just scratching the surface. There are also love-sick kids and amorous teenagers and conflicted athletes and old married couples. And I could go on.
Basically, Valentine’s Day takes every romcom plot you’ve ever seen, condenses them all down to just a few minutes each, and weaves them through each other, making the characters of the various stories connect and mingle and interact along the way. In theory, it’s a cute idea: taking a bunch of familiar storylines and turning them into one big love story anthology. Fortunately, most of the stories don’t need all that much development anyway, since you’ve seen them all before. So, for the most part, you’ll know who’s going to end up together, who will work out their differences, and who will go their separate ways.
The problem, though, is that it’s all just too much. There are so many stars (19 of whom are listed on the Blu-ray packaging) involved in so many different stories that it’s often difficult to keep track of them all. Some of the stories fade into the background. And some of the stars, given just a few minutes of screen time, overact their little hearts out—most likely in an attempt to stand out in the massive crowd.
The cast is lovable, and the stories are cute—in that fluffy, chick flick way. But Valentine’s Day would have been far more successful if it had cut about half of the stories and focused more attention on just a few of them instead.
Blu-ray Review:
After watching the special features included in the Valentine’s Day Blu-ray release, I’m convinced that Garry Marshall could simply sit and talk to a camera for 90 minutes, and it would be one of the most entertaining movies I’ve seen all year. Marshall’s definitely the star of the disc’s extras—whether he’s introducing the plethora of deleted scenes (all 14 of ‘em) or being imitated by his cast in the gag reel. He even gets his own feature, The Garry Factor, in which the stars talk about their experiences with him.
After watching Valentine’s Day, then, I highly recommend checking out the extras—or at least those featuring the film’s wildly entertaining director.
