Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
Dr. Burke Ryan is a successful self-help author and motivational speaker with a secret. While he helps thousands of people cope with tragedy and personal loss, he secretly is unable to overcome the death of his late wife. It's not until Burke meets a fiercely independent florist named Eloise that he is forced to face his past and overcome his demons.
Love Happens is a fairly formulaic grief-recovery romance that follows predictable beats: the emotionally closed-off widower meets a free-spirited woman who helps him heal. The irony of a self-help guru unable to practice what he preaches is a decent hook but is not developed with much depth or originality. Aaron Eckhart and Jennifer Aniston deliver competent, watchable performances that elevate the thin material somewhat, but neither is given enough to work with. Seattle is photographed pleasantly but unremarkably. The ending resolves tidily without earning its emotional payoff, leaving little impression. The film is solidly mediocre — not offensively bad, but offering little that distinguishes it from dozens of similar romantic dramas.