Love Hurts (2009)
Genres: Comedy
Running Time: 1 hr. 35 min.
Release Date: November 13th, 2009 (limited)
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for ome drug content and language including sexual references.
Distributors: Lantern Lane Entertainment
Also Known As: Hanging Out, Hooking Up, Falling in Love
HangingOutHookingUpFallingInLove
Production Status: In Production/Awaiting Release
Logline: A newly separated father learns how to date again with the help of his teenage son, who himself dreams of conquering one girl's heart.
Genres: Comedy
Running Time: 1 hr. 35 min.
Release Date: November 13th, 2009 (limited)
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for ome drug content and language including sexual references.
Distributors: Lantern Lane Entertainment
Production Co.: Pageant Productions
Filming Locations: Los Angeles, California United States
Los Angeles, California, USA
Produced in: United States
Ben Bingham, is a fossilized middle-aged ear nose and throat doctor who is married to the vibrant, beautiful Amanda who can no longer tolerate his complacency. With their son Justin about to leave for college, the idea of sharing an empty nest with her husband becomes so depressing, she leaves. Ben, mystified by her departure, drowns himself in gin, decides he has chronic fatigue syndrome and refuses to get out of his pajamas. Justin, an extremely popular 17 year-old, with a long list of friends with benefits, takes over. He gets Ben a new spiked hairstyle, an all black wardrobe and pushes him out into the social scene. Before Ben knows what is happening, he becomes the most popular single man in town, pursued by his nurse, his trainer, and a pair of Karaoke-singing twins. Things change when Justin falls in love for the first time with an angelic virginal Russian ballerina. Having no idea how to win her heart, Ben must teach his son how to forego being a stud and become a romantic. In the process, Ben realizes how much he has lost, letting Amanda go and decides to win her back--only to find she is now in the arms of another man.
Film toplines Richard E. Grant (no relation to the helmer) as Ben, an uptight ear, nose and throat doctor who brings to mind an alternate universe in which Jerry Lewis has been cast as the lead in "American Beauty." The character is clearly intended to be broadly drawn, but Grant himself seems to have no idea how to play certain scenes, and so just goes for broke, furiously flailing about. As the film opens, he is left by long-suffering wife Amanda (Carrie-Anne Moss), who jets off to stay with a sassy friend (Camryn Manheim) and cavort with a Fabio-chested new boyfriend (Jeffrey Nordling).
Crushed, Ben dedicates himself to moping around the house, wailing and wearing his wife's scarves while drinking sloe gin fizzes (the poor guy is so out of touch, he doesn't even know middle-aged men are supposed to take to whiskey after a breakup). His heartthrob son, Justin (Johnny Pacar) -- surrounded at all times by a trio of buddies who may well have been extras on "Degrassi" -- decides to take Dad under his wing, explaining that in order to "get back into the big leagues" and win back his wife, he'll have to spend "some time in the minors," i.e., shtupping a string of disposable, less attractive women.
This premise -- oversexed teenager helps his nebbish father get laid -- could be winningly creepy in the right hands, but here it just represents the shortest route to a makeover sequence, with a new suit and a Brian Grazer-esque haircut transforming Ben from a simpering pile of goo into an instant ladies' man. Jenna Elfman and Janeane Garofalo have thankless roles as two of his conquests (considering the shallowness of the female parts here, it comes as something of a surprise that the film was written and directed by a woman).
The surest indication that the script needed major revamping is the proliferation of comedic loose ends; punchlines seem to arrive with no setups, and extensive comic architecture is constructed and then left abandoned. The pic includes sequences of both an overly amorous dog and an uptight adult accidentally ingesting marijuana-infused baked goods -- essentially the two nuclear options of slapstick comedy -- yet forgets to even make jokes about them. The dog humps Ben's leg, then stops; the middle-aged square gets briefly stoned, then goes home quietly. End scene.
