FILM/ REVIEW
LOVE HURTS
Rated R
83 Minutes
Released February 7th
Valentine’s Day is written all over this movie. Love Hurts seems to be a designated date movie for that well-intentioned but often unsettling day, as people try to make impressions on the target of their affections. All in all, Love Hurts is as awkward as many Valentine’s dates can be. With stars like highly skilled martial artist/actor Ke Huy Quan, who won the 2022 Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once, and Ariana DeBose, a triple threat dancer/singer/actor who also won a Best Supporting Oscar for her role in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story in 2021, you might expect gold here as well.
Quan shows off his martial arts skills, but there is not a lot of complexity in his role of “Marvin Gable,” a meek but highly enthusiastic realtor with a dark past. The narrative plays as if the filmmakers shot the martial arts sequences first and then proceeded to build a story around them. The story could have been more enthralling and funnier, and there’s not a lot of deep diving here as far as personalities or backstories.
I would love to have seen more of DeBose’s skills utilized. She has great charisma, but you don’t see a relationship form between her and Quan’s character. I believe this is due to the writing, not the acting. There’s no footage that shows the history that the two are supposed to have other than some dialogue exposition. I can’t help but think that the fact that DeBose is 5’9” and Quan is 5’4” or 5’5” –might have created a hilarious moment in a slow dance scene or an awkward kiss, but that height difference was never used as a comedic point.
Some great fish-out-of-water sequences are entertaining, and some scenes could have been even funnier if written with more depth. Interplay between characters of diverse social backgrounds provides laughs, though not used as much as it could have been. Mustafa Shakir as gangster “The Raven” and Lio Tipton as upscale Realtor “Ashley” are the funniest pairing in the film. These two are well-cast and provide the most interesting scenes. Shakir and Tipton both have sharp comedic timing, likeability, and the finesse to effortlessly play off one another with nuance. If the movie had been about their characters, it would have been hilarious. They are over-the-top but fleshed out and genuine and presented with such subtlety that they seem like real people we know. Tipton was a competitive ice skater and Ford model before becoming an actress and screenwriter. She has appeared in several movies and TV shows since 2011. Shakir is a working actor with an impressive resume of character roles on film and TV. Here, he creates a charismatic and memorable thug who also happens to be a poet.
There is a scene which had great possibilities for hilarity, where a middle-class suburban couple looking at a house for sale gets drawn into a shoot-out. If the couple had been developed more into people we come to care about and then were sent bouncing all over the house escaping bullets, it would have been funnier.
Love Hurts could work well as a “date” movie, especially if what you want to do is get to know your plus one better. This is not a story with depth. You may get some laughs, though, and there is no complex relationship to ponder other than yours with your filmgoing partner.
Kathryn Whitney Boole has spent most of her life in the entertainment industry, which has been the backdrop for remarkable adventures with extraordinary people. She is a Talent Manager with Studio Talent Group in Santa Monica. kboole@gmail.com
