Richard E. Grant is generally a joy on screen.  There is just something wonderfully manic and bizarre about the guy, almost as if he was the UK’s answer to Christopher Walken or Steve Buscemi.  So it was a shame to have to see him rein it in to portray a dull family doctor in the generic, straight-to-DVD romantic comedy, Love Hurts.  A film that is neither romantic nor comedic.  

You’ve seen this story countless times.  After years of marriage, a wife leaves her boring husband to find her “spark” with another man, so he learns to live again in order to win her back.  The main problem with this premise is that the wife is played by Carrie-Anne Moss, who is incapable of showing any kind of spark.  She is so dour, that even when she smiles, she looks like someone just shot her puppy.  So one has to wonder what her character saw in Richard E. Grant’s doctor in the first place or why REG is so keen to win back that shrew.  

Then we’re subjected to a whole subplot of the doctor falling under the tutelage of his teenage son in order to learn how to be hip and woo women.  But I just can’t buy that this kid is a wise Casanova, or that he can get his dad laid either.   Then the kid falls for a Russian ballerina and needs his dad to teach him how to love.  No, seriously.  That’s the storyline.  But what can you expect from a movie that was originally titled Hanging Out Hooking Up Falling In Love.  Not that Love Hurts is much better, either in name or execution.  I’m glad to see Richard E. Grant getting work, but I’ll just keep up hope that he’ll get better roles in movies that people will actually see.  

While researching this title, I ran across the best DVD review I’ve ever read for any film.  It was so much more enjoyable than the movie, that instead of linking to it, I’ve decided to just include all of devesh070’s IMDB review of Love Hurts for everyone to enjoy: