‘I’ ON CULTURE
With few decent options for a film review, I went to see Love Hurts. I was pleasantly surprised that it was a decent diversion, since many reviews were quite critical. Since it was directed by Jonathan Eusebio, the fight designer on the excellent John Wick films, I had expected a tough, fight-dominant philosophical film until I read the reviews. A comic film in that style? Well, it was OK, but I cannot recommend it.
And the hero, Marvin Gable (Ke Huy Quan), comes across as a rather small, meek person. In the film, we first see him as a hard-working, successful real estate salesman, baking cookies for prospective customers, glad-handing his staff and trying to motivate his very depressed assistant Ashley (Lio Tipton). And then he starts to get notes from Rose (Ariana DeBose), an old friend who he hadn’t seen in years. Valentine-style notes.
Suddenly, his life gets turned around. A huge assassin named Raven (Mustafa Shakir) attacks him in his own office trying to find out where Rose is. A bloody, silent martial arts battle ensues, and Raven is left unconscious while Marvin heads home. There he is attacked by another pair of killers, King (Marshawn Lynch) and Otis (André Eriksen), who try to capture him.
It seems his brother, known as “Knuckles” (Daniel Wu) runs a company for the mob, and Marvin was his top hitman until he reported that he had killed Rose and took off. Now Rose is back, and it threatens Knuckles. There are many twists and turns, and a lot of fighting, which is generally well done.
The cast is good, although, frankly, the roles are not all that demanding, except for participation in fight scenes. And pretty much every member of the cast gets tossed around more than a bit. As expected, people betray each other while falling in love and making commitments. The problem is that, in general, we do not care all that much.
Quan and DeBose are definitely an odd couple. He’s older than her by a couple of decades, and until he actually fights, seems far too meek for her. There is not much chemistry there. The minor character couplings are far more interesting. Watching Tipton and Shakir is much more fun. She is almost a caricature of a brat; tall, blond, slender and with a perpetual whine. Then she finds this huge guy on the floor of her boss’s office and reads the poetry he creates. Convinced the man is dead, she despairs, having lost the love of her life. Then he gains consciousness, and she is ready to fight for him. Shakir is a huge, bearded man with a scary scowl, but she only seems to see the beauty of the poet within. Essentially, he steals every scene he’s in.
My favorite couple, though, were King and Otis. There was no sex there, just laughs. Eriksen told his buddy his wife called him “emotionally constipated,” and Lynch kept giving advice on how to deal with women. The two of them were a great pairing and contributed mightily to the mayhem. Stuffing Marvin into a refrigerator and then tossing it through a wall only began their fun. Later, as part of a fight, looking for extra weapons, they take giant utensils, ones used as wall décor, and try them against Raven. They look like they are having a wonderful time.
The real problem is the movement from action to comedy to actual drama. Sean Astin has a small part as Marvin’s boss. His moments with Knuckles, where he tells the man that he and Marvin are “brothers” and points to pictures on the wall, while Marvin’s actual brother who is out to hurt him listens, were great. But they were moving enough, and they took a lot away from the comic pace.
And that is the real problem with the film. It is at once trying to be a Valentine’s Day comedy, a chase film and a martial arts film. As a result, the pacing is off. Even worse, the lack of chemistry between the stars makes us not really care much what happens.
I selected the movie for review because the other choices were either horror films (my least favorite genre) or kiddie movies. To add to my woes, four out of the six coming events trailers were for horror movies. We need comedies, real ones. And good dramas.
You can skip this one. You might enjoy it when it comes to the small screen, and you can pay a lot less. Some fun, but not worth the ticket price.