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Valentine's Day
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Valentine's Day
Ensemble romantic comedy, directed by Garry Marshall, charting the amorous ups and downs of a series of interconnected Los Angelinos over the titular holiday, including a newly engaged florist (Ashton Kutcher) and his live-in fiancee (Jessica Alba), a teacher (Jennifer Garner) and her doctor beau (Patrick Dempsey), a long-married couple (Shirley MacLaine and Hector Elizondo) preparing to renew their vows, and a pair of 18-year-old high school students (Emma Roberts and Carter Jenkins) planning to lose their virginity together. As unengaging as it is unwieldy, screenwriter Katherine Fugate's tale of loves lost and found rejects marital infidelity, but otherwise takes the full physical expression of affection as a given, before marriage, before college and between members of the same gender. Implicit approval of nonmarital sexual activity and homosexual acts, partial nudity, adultery and phone-sex themes, sexual references and jokes, brief irreverent humor, a half-dozen crude and some crass terms. O -- morally offensive. (PG-13) 2010
Valentine's Day (Full Review)
Director Garry Marshall's ensemble romantic comedy "Valentine's Day" (New Line) -- though chockablock with talented stars -- is as unengaging as it is unwieldy. Worse, as penned by Katherine Fugate, this tale of loves lost and found, while rejecting marital infidelity, otherwise takes the full physical expression of affection as a given, before marriage, before college and between members of the same gender.
The script charts the amorous ups and downs of a series of interconnected Los Angelenos over the titular holiday, beginning with the early-morning proposal of starry-eyed florist Reed (Ashton Kutcher) to his work-obsessed girlfriend Morley (Jessica Alba). Since the pair already lives together, Reed only has to go around the foot of the bed to pop the question.
Reed's best friend is elementary school teacher Julia (Jennifer Garner), who wakes up beside her newfound beau, cardiologist Harrison (Patrick Dempsey). He's off on a trip to San Francisco that will prevent him from taking Julia to dinner on the most sentimentally significant night of the year, so we immediately sense there's something wrong, even if Julia doesn't.
Edison (Bryce Robinson), one of Julia's fifth-graders, lives with his grandparents Estelle and Edgar (Shirley MacLaine and Hector Elizondo), who are preparing to renew their vows after more than 50 years of marriage. But former screen ingenue Estelle has a long pent-up secret that could derail their return to the altar.
Edison's 18-year-old baby-sitter Grace (Emma Roberts) plans to spend the afternoon consummating her relationship with high school classmate, boyfriend and fellow virgin Alex (Carter Jenkins). Though Grace eventually has second thoughts, her reasons for delay are as irresponsible as Alex's unabashed longing for immediate gratification.
Other plotlines involve Jamie Foxx as a sportswriter, Eric Dane as pro football player with a clouded future, Queen Latifah as the athlete's no-nonsense agent, and Anne Hathaway as a secretary at the agent's office who moonlights as a sex phone worker. And that's not to mention Julia Roberts as a furloughed army Captain.
While, as the Bard assures us, "The course of true love never did run smooth," here, neither does the course of shacking up, talking dirty for extra pay or bedding down -- as Hathaway's character also does -- with someone you've been dating for all of two weeks.
The film contains implicit approval of nonmarital sexual activity and homosexual acts, partial nudity, adultery and phone-sex themes, sexual references and jokes, brief irreverent humor and a half-dozen crude and some crass terms. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is O -- morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material maybe inappropriate for children under 13.
These movies have been evaluated for artistic merit and moral suitability by the media reviewing division of Catholic News Service. The reviews include the CNS rating, the Motion Picture Association of America rating, and a brief synopsis of the movie.
The classifications are as follows:
A-I -- general patronage;
A-II -- adults and adolescents;
A-III -- adults;
L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. L replaces the previous classification, A-IV.
O -- morally offensive.
Note: Some movies previously were designated A-IV. Older films with this classification should be regarded as classified L.