Burke Ryan, is a successful therapist, holder of a Ph.D. and author of a self-help book that gives advice about dealing with the loss of a loved one. He writes the book after his wife dies in a car accident as a way to deal with the grief. While giving a workshop in Seattle, where his wife was from, he meets Eloise, a creative floral designer who owns a flower shop. She spurns his initial advance as, until then, her relationships with men have not gone well, but after a heated exchange in the men's restroom, she meets him for dinner. Even though the dinner is awkward, they begin spending time together although, as she insists to her mother and her employee Marty, they are not "dating". It seems, however, that Burke has not been following his own advice, and in fact, has not really been dealing with the loss of his wife. In the end, he confesses to an audience that, in reality, he was the one driving the car when his wife died, and not her, as he previously maintained. Due to this, he blames himself for her death. Eloise, along with his wife's father, help Burke move past his wife's death. Burke goes to Eloise, telling her that she had spent the last few days getting to know the part of him that was not available and wondered was she interested in getting to know the part of him that was available.
Cast
Aaron Eckhart as Burke Ryan, PhD, a widowed self-help author and therapist who holds grieving seminars around the country
Jennifer Aniston as Eloise, a florist and the woman that Burke begins dating
Frances Conroy as Eloise's mother
Martin Sheen as Burke's father-in-law
Judy Greer as Marty, Eloise's employee and friend
Dan Fogler as Lane "Goddamn" Marshall, Burke's manager
Joe Anderson as Tyler, Eloise's musician boyfriend, who she breaks up with over his cheating
John Carroll Lynch as Walter, a reluctant seminar attendee who lost his son
Darla Vandenbossche as Beehive
Panou as Unicom Executive #3, a Unicom Exec
Soundtrack
Additional music by:
Production
During development, the film was known as Brand New Day and Traveling. The film takes place in Seattle, Washington, and was filmed in Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia. On September 15, 2009, a lawsuit was filed by two writers claiming that the film's premise was stolen from them, seeking an injunction against its release or to be awarded the film's future profits, estimated at $100,000,000.
Reception
reported that 17% of critics gave positive reviews based on 109 reviews with a score of 3.79/10. The site's consensus states: "Love Happens is a dull, chemistry-free affair that under-utilizes its appealing leads." Another review aggretator, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating from reviews of mainstream critics, gave the film a "generally unfavorable" score of 33% based on 25 reviews. On its opening weekend, the film opened at #4 behind I Can Do Bad All By Myself, The Informant!, and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs respectively with $8,057,010.
Home media
Love Happens was released on DVD & Blu-ray on February 2, 2010. It grossed $7,721,633 in US DVD sales.
