Love Hurts

Thing about Richard E. Grant is he doesn't seem to be able to get part re-playing - and re-playing and re-playing - the character he played in "Withnail & I" and "How to Get Ahead in Advertising" - both of which are classics.

Withnail was in 1987 - Grant's first film - and How to Get Ahead in Advertising was in 1989 - that's over 30 yrs ago and Grant has made over 100 movies since then - but in every scenario, no matter how unsuited, he's always Withnail.

So what is the Withnail character - well, it's a frenzied Brit who is interminably bemused by the circumstances in which he in interminably incongruous.

And in Withnail and How to Get Ahead - he had a perfect fit with.writer/director Bruce Robinson - who had the "Benny Hill" sensibility of that era in Brit comedy to a tee - sharp dialogue, hilarious nonsensical narratives, etc etc.

So with Robinson, although Grant played basically the same character, the settings were completely different - in Withnail, he's a dispossessed 60's London gad-about and in "Getting Ahead" he's a slick 1980's advertising exec - but Robinson makes it work in both cases without seeming to be repetitive.

Without Robinson, or a script/director of similar wit and panache - Grant is lost and is like a audio clip that just keeps skipping and repeating.

In this offering, Grant has nowhere near a Robinson level story or script or cast of supporting actors - and, consequently, it's just a below mediocre mash with Grant flopping around being bemused but definitely not amusing.

Well, there it is ...

Love hurts, and divorce hurts too, especially if you're so self-absorbed that you have no idea what's happening. Moving on also hurts when you're completely clueless about how regular people in society operate. "Love Hurts", the film, is a comedy, but it also hurts because the hackneyed jokes are more painful than funny.

None of the characters (the ex-wife, the sex-crazed assistant, or the candid son) were thought out at all. They were empty, annoying, and unintentionally more clueless than Ben, our "hero". I came close to liking Ben. Richard E. Grant can pull off sarcasm with aplomb, and he has a look that you can laugh at even when he's drunk and contemptible. But it takes a significantly better written film than this to successfully have an anti-hero hero.

"Love Hurts" doesn't have anything original, and nothing particularly funny. Most characters didn't make much sense, but they also weren't written as people, they were walking, talking jokes—which unfortunately didn't even provide any laughs. Grant brought everything he could to the character of Ben, and you can almost watch the film for him, but I would just recommend finding him in something else instead.

Dad (richard grant) is going through a breakup of his marriage, while son (pacar) is just falling in love with a girl he has just met. Mom (moss) is staying with the next door neighbor (manheim), and has also met someone new. They all still lean on each other when necessary. Can they help each other get through all this? Smaller roles for rita rudner, janeane garofalo, jenna elfman. It's cute....has a strange vibe at the start, but the chemistry gets better as it goes along. In the beginning, dad seems to be channeling hugh grant, sounding and acting just like him. But he settles down after that, and the film gets better. Good, solid story, as the son teaches dad to be a playa in the dating world. And dad teaches son to get more serious when he falls in love. This is listed as a comdy. No real big laughs, but it's good. Written and directed by barra grant. So many grants... wonder if she is related to richard. Or hugh.

WHAT!!! 28 year old playing 17! Who they kidding? Why do they do this?

Don't they ever learn.

Stop this stupidity.

Use actors of the age they are playing.

To use somebody almost twice the age they are supposed to be playing is ridiculous.

And to the actor: why do you let them do this to you? You have no shame. Are you only in it for the money and and don't care about letting the producers and directors walk all over you? Act your age not somebody half it.

Even my wife, who loves chick flicks, thought this was terrible.