By Deandra Hoppe
If you are looking for the typical uplifting movie about a woman who falls in love after supposedly losing the ‘love of her life’ and some extra Hollywood jazz usually accompanying stereotypical “chick flicks,” then Jennifer Garner is not the girl for you.
In this love story gone wrong, both the future and the past become forever changed by the death of a fiancé and the secrets he has kept from the one he loved when alive.
But unlike movies such as “Four Weddings And A Funeral”, “Pearl Harbor” and “Something Like Heaven”, the result of one death doesn’t mark an onward trend of happiness and self-discovery.
Instead audiences are subjected to one pitfall after another of the central protagonist. The viewer waits for an uplifting moment to make them feel better about life in general, but it never comes.
The main character of the story is Gray Wheeler (Jennifer Garner) who must suddenly deal with the death of her fiancé, Grady.
On the day they were supposed to get married instead there is a funeral. She is surrounded by friends and family but cannot get away from the complete sense of loss Grady’s death has left.
Shortly after the funeral, Gray discovers not only that Grady was rich, but was sending money to his three year old child, born when still with Gray.
As she struggles to find sanity in the senselessness that has become her life, the movie starts to find a bit of depth in Gray’s character, yet lacks a steady rhythm or complete illumination of all the situations.
The only comic relief seems to come from Kevin Smith’s character of Sam, a friend of the late Grady, and a breath of fresh air, or sentiment, after so much drama.
The movie lacks an overall rhythm. It has amazing scenery, having been shot in Boulder, Colorado, and a killer soundtrack, but the plot seems lacking.
The audience is left with more questions than answers. If you are planning on seeing this movie on Valentine’s Day, make sure your main concentration won’t be the screen.
