A while ago, my wife and I watched a little B-film from 2009 called The Answer Man, where Jeff Daniels plays a famous author who years ago wrote a big-selling spiritual book but now is a irascible, screwed-up recluse who is unable to relate to anybody and so filled with anger his body is quitting on him at a young age. He meets Lauren Graham, who plays an acupuncturist he goes to, and slowly he starts to fall in love and face his life. I remember at the time we were both ripping the thing mercilessly.

But The Answer Man is starting to look pretty good compared to Love Happens. In Love Happens, Aaron Eckhart plays a famous author who wrote a big-selling spiritual book but who in his private life is a sad and tormented guy. He meets Jennifer Aniston, falls in love instantly and starts to face his life. But God, what a dreary affair the whole thing is. It’s the kind of movie that you keep watching despite its low-grade awfulness, telling yourself “I might as well see how it ends.” But then as the denouement approaches it starts turning south more vigorously and finally you ask youself  “why again am I sitting through this shit?” and you turn the thing off without even caring what the punchline was. At least that’s what we wound up doing.

Some thoughts on Love Happens:

Problem 1:  Jennifer Aniston is such an awful actress. I was shocked at how bad her delivery of her lines is. Even throwaway lines that are almost impossible to screw up she somehow manages to make sound bizarre and artificial. Her range of facial expressions is pitiful, as is her comedic technique. Judy Greer, who plays her “friend,” totally outclasses her in their scenes, even thought Greer has hardly any lines and none of them are any good. (By the way, why does Judy Greer never get any leading roles?)

Problem 2: The movie spends WAAAAY too much time on the self-help workshops, which are cloying and downright insufferable. The advice he’s giving people is generally pretty bad or insensitive, and what’s worse I think the film wants you to believe that he is really helping people. The folks in the workshop don’t seem the slightest bit real. But the film keeps banging you over the head with this stuff. At one point in the film I realized that Jennifer Aniston had been off-screen for like a half-hour as they messed around with the workshop crap – you can’t have that in a romantic comedy! As my wife pointed out “The film is so bad it made Jennifer Aniston look good.”

Problem 3: The thing with the bird just drove me over the edge. We shut it off shortly after that.

If you want to watch a bad movie on this particular topic, I would suggest The Answer Man. At least it’s occasionally funny, has quirky dialog and some memorable lines, is somewhat interesting, Lauren Graham is very easy to like, and the cloying moments are somehow kept under control.

Love Happens can safely be skipped.