Valentine's Day

It’s a shame that this review is coming out after Valentine’s Day. Because the holiday’s namesake film, released this past Friday, is the perfect film to watch on February 14th.

Valentine’s Day is one of the most divisive holidays of the year. Couples can love the day as a chance to remind themselves of the puppy infatuation they felt when they first met, or they can feel completely inadequate for getting the wrong shade of roses from the over-packed flower shop. Single people can eat chocolate, go clubbing, and generally enjoy being non-committal for the day, or they can be absolutely miserable and want to pelt every happy couple with stale chocolate.

Luckily, moviegoers at “Valentine’s Day” this Friday left the theater feeling good about themselves and their current state of romantic existence. The film has so many different characters and subplots that it’s almost impossible not to relate to at least one of them. Single people leave feeling hopeful for the future, couples leave remembering why they’re together in the first place, and everyone in between just leaves feeling good about romance in general.

It’s amazing that I have gotten this far into this review without mentioning the cast. Anyone who saw the trailer for “Valentine’s Day” probably left thinking, “Who isn’t in this movie?” With an ensemble cast consisting of over twenty A-listers, this movie was easily Hollywood’s biggest employer outside of the restaurant business (yes, I went there). The thing is, after they’ve all been introduced at least once, it’s very easy to forget how star-studded this cast is. The stories blend and intertwine and progress well enough that the characters become and stay characters, rather than Ashton Kutcher, Jennifer Garner, Queen Latifah, Anne Hathaway, Julia Roberts, Patrick Dempsey, Jamie Foxx…(need I go on?).

The writing is very clever. There are one-liners and memorable scenes everywhere, most notably a scene where Jessica Biel breaks down in Valentine’s misery screaming at Jamie Foxx “My closest relationship is with my blackberry! Thank God it vibrates,” and a scene where Jennifer Garner poses as a waitress, publically humiliates her boyfriend in front of his wife, and then charges two lobster tail meals to his table. Some of the best humor comes from Taylor Swift (who can either act really well or really is a complete idiot- my money is on the former), Anne Hathaway (whose character is a receptionist slash phone sex operator), and Bryce Robinson (who at the age of ten is responsible for about 60% of the moviegoer’s giggles, awws, and general sensitivity- even Ashton Kutcher’s character calls him “the cutest kid in the world” after he earnestly tries to give Kutcher thirteen dollars for fifty-five dollars worth of roses).

There probably hasn’t been a film since “Love, Actually” that managed to do the ensemble romantic comedy film this well. Last year’s “He’s Just Not That Into You” almost achieved it, but it fell short of its goal in the end. As a predictable, gentle, February romantic comedy, “Valentine’s Day” won’t be winning any Oscars, but it’s still easily one of the best feel-good movies of the year. Grade: A-