Eine herzliche Affäre

Jeff Daniel's stars in 'Love Hurts' as a man who engages in empty womanizing after experiencing the pain of divorce and losing his kids. His ex and kids have moved to a farmhouse in Pennsylvania near his parents and, in the meanwhile, Daniels tries to heal his hurt with work, cigarettes, liquor and sex.

Then he's asked to attend his sister's wedding in his Pennsylvania hometown (his ex and kids will be there) and we can clearly see some life lessons on the horizon. Weddings are often ripe for human behavior ('Lovers and Other Strangers,' Altman's 'A Wedding' are two good examples) and here is not different. The screenwriter has a good ear for brisk diaolgue that sounds like real people are speaking it. Bud Yorkin directs with a sure hand and makes all the scenes interesting.

But it is the acting by the principles that raises the film up. Jeff Daniels has often given excellent performance that fly under the radar ('Purple Rose of Cauro,' 'Marie,' 'Something Wild'), but here he does something very special : he humanized an average shlub who is fallible and even sometimes a jerk. John Mahoney and Cloris Leachman seemingly effortlessly invest their roles as his parents with humanity and compassion. And Amy Wright (who we never got enough of) brightens the film as the awkward and unsure sister.

It's a quiet film, made of little moments. No CGI here. Just humans grappling with life in a sometimes humorous and altogether honest way. Burt Bacharach lends a nice if somewhat repetitive score. An underrated gem of a film and a certain must for Jeff Daniels' fans. Don't listen to the naysayers.

Paul (Jeff Daniels) is a womanizer. It ruined his marriage, as his wife divorced him about one year ago. He is repentant, naturally, but just can't seem to stop chasing the females. Going home to Pennsylvania for a wedding, he encounters his ex-wife, his children, his dotty mother, his alcoholic father, and the bride, his jittery sister. While waiting for the wedding to occur, Paul and his family go through one trial after another. Paul even makes passes at one of the bridesmaids. Will he ever learn? This film is so tuned to reality that it is a downer to watch. Daniels gives an outstanding performance as the likable guy with big flaws. Sikes also does a fine job as the ex-wife with a lot of baggage. The ending strives to approach a more upbeat tone. Fans of Daniels will want to see this work. All other viewers should be cautioned that it is not a romantic comedy. It is a dark comedy at best, with the happy romance vibes registering a zero on the love meter.

This is quite the period piece - Jeff Daniels plays the "hero" role and he is an incredible a**hole - he jumps every woman he crosses paths with, mostly married - altho he has two kids he has neglected per a divorce in process - and it's all OK because the editor had overlaid (no pun intended) all his dalliances with cute-sey 1980's style romantic music.

And Daniels exacerbates the effect by, for some reason, choosing to "act" the part by constantly erupting into screaming fits at the top of his voice like a spoiled 13 year old in every situation in which the character is slotted to express frustration at his existential dilemmas.

John Mahoney plays the Jeff Daniel's character's lout of drunken father - but he's oh so witty, so that that's OK too. And he does a lot of excessive cursing - Mahoney's facile analog to Daniels' screaming fits - and is the best arm-wrestler at the local prototypically small town, oh so friendly & wholesome, local drunks' bar/poolhall and has a vintage Cadillac in his garage - oh wow, emotionally abusive to wife (played by Cloris Leachman who gives the only noteworthy performance in this debacle), but has vintage car, it's all OK then.

Worst part is there is then a "mentoring" scene at the local bar where father and grandfather drunkenly encourage teenage grandson to follow in their paths. It's quite sickening to think the writers and director thought this was the comical scene.

Of course the other supporting cast married guys who are faithful to their marriages are chumps or orgres.

Really don't know what the value schema of this thing is - but it's dated and pretty repulsive by any normal measure.

Oh well.

It's beyond fiction when he calls the married woman "beautiful" . Makes zero sense takes you right out of what might have been a passable movie.

More of a drama, this movie is one of the saddest movie about love, it only show the worst part of it, in every scene the hero is strained and hurted, you can only cry about his fate until a little before the end, they describe it as "A Painfully Romantic Comedy" on the poster, but they really should change it to "A Painfully Dramatic Comedy " because the romance is simply not present, only rejection and questions about relationship, overall the movie is not badly played or written, but they lied about it, and I don't like being lied to..