Mon amour

By the beginning of the 1990's Jeff Daniels was mostly known as a leading man in indie comedies like Jonathan Demme's "Something Wild", or he had supporting roles in mainstream dramas like the Oscar- winning "Terms of Endearment." His only real mainstream leading performance came in 1990's Arachnophobia, in which his performance there didn't get the recognition it deserved, as more attention went to John Goodman's role as well as the story and special effects. He was still a few years shy of his roles in Speed and Dumb and Dumber, both released in 1994, that would turn him into a household-name character actor. In between all of those films was this little, hidden, 1990 flick, which got no real critical reviews or audience recognition upon release and mostly remains unknown by the public today. Having enjoyed Daniels other aforementioned roles, I was curious to see if this was a hidden gem, or a piece of trash that should remain in obscurity. Well it's not quite a gem, the story is pretty familiar, and it certainly isn't worth the obscurity status it has received since its release. There are some very good performances here from Daniels and John Mahoney from Fraiser and Cloris Leachman from The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

You have seen this story before in many other movies and sitcoms. Daniels plays a playboy-ish New York City insurance salesman who finalizes his divorce with his ex-wife played by Cynthia Sikes. He bought a country house in Pennsylvania for he and his wife and children to live in, but the wife claimed it after the divorce. The ex-wife and children are evacuated from their home as repairs have to be done for six weeks, so they all move in with Daniels' parents played by Mahoney and Leachman. Amidst all of this Daniels sister is getting married, and knowing his ex-wife will be in attendance at the wedding, he initially declines his wedding invitation until his boss convinces him to do otherwise. So Daniels' goes to spend the weekend with his profane, alcoholic father, a mechanic, and his sweet-natured housewife mother. Along the way he attempts to seduce a young, attractive woman whom he almost hits with his car, who is married to an abrasive painter until he finds out that this woman is a bridesmaid in his sister's wedding. Will he choose her, will he attempt to seduce his ex and win her back? What becomes of the rest of his family? The rest of the movie focuses all on those details.

Daniels manages to squeeze in a few laughs from his dialogue and delivery, but where his performance really scores high is in his more poignant moments. He brings a lot of be-livability into his role and we sympathize with him, while also realizing he is a man with a lot of weight on his shoulder because of his past mistakes and wants a second chance to make things right. Mahoney gets the biggest laughs in the movie. His role here is far different from Martin Crane. He is the dad who is like-ably goofy, yet an embarrassment to his family at the same time. Leachman is sadly given very little to do and her role could have really been expanded.

Burt Bacharach's score also gives the movie merit and the score is very pleasant and captures the plot very well. The director is Bud Yorkin who redeems himself here after directing the ill-fated Arthur 2: On the Rocks a few years earlier. The film also has nice locations. It has a bit of a Frank Capra like quality from It's a Wonderful Life in capturing the small-town life.

This is not an outstanding movie by any means. It's not an underrated gem that many will claim as a forgotten masterpiece all these years later, but it is a heartfelt, sincere comedy-drama in spite of its routine story and it has good performances, music, direction and writing for it to be worth a look for sure.

On a side note: I was disappointed to see that the song "Love Hurts" by Nazareth didn't get played at all during the film. I kept expecting it but it didn't turn up. They should have included it at some point during the film.

It's beyond fiction when he calls the married woman "beautiful" . Makes zero sense takes you right out of what might have been a passable movie.

Jeff Daniel's stars in 'Love Hurts' as a man who engages in empty womanizing after experiencing the pain of divorce and losing his kids. His ex and kids have moved to a farmhouse in Pennsylvania near his parents and, in the meanwhile, Daniels tries to heal his hurt with work, cigarettes, liquor and sex.

Then he's asked to attend his sister's wedding in his Pennsylvania hometown (his ex and kids will be there) and we can clearly see some life lessons on the horizon. Weddings are often ripe for human behavior ('Lovers and Other Strangers,' Altman's 'A Wedding' are two good examples) and here is not different. The screenwriter has a good ear for brisk diaolgue that sounds like real people are speaking it. Bud Yorkin directs with a sure hand and makes all the scenes interesting.

But it is the acting by the principles that raises the film up. Jeff Daniels has often given excellent performance that fly under the radar ('Purple Rose of Cauro,' 'Marie,' 'Something Wild'), but here he does something very special : he humanized an average shlub who is fallible and even sometimes a jerk. John Mahoney and Cloris Leachman seemingly effortlessly invest their roles as his parents with humanity and compassion. And Amy Wright (who we never got enough of) brightens the film as the awkward and unsure sister.

It's a quiet film, made of little moments. No CGI here. Just humans grappling with life in a sometimes humorous and altogether honest way. Burt Bacharach lends a nice if somewhat repetitive score. An underrated gem of a film and a certain must for Jeff Daniels' fans. Don't listen to the naysayers.

This is an excellent film in every manner with the impulse behind its artistic success being the script by Ron Nyswaner, wry, witty and moving, each in its turn, detailed when it needs to be, and only suggestive, when that is appropriate. Varying concepts of what a person's home is and what it should be molds this comedic drama, the final directoral essay by Bud Yorkin, and unjustly overlooked or carelessly reviewed. Jeff Daniels portrays Paul Weaver, freshly divorced but not having altered his causative rakish ways, obligated to sojourn at the home of his parents for the wedding of his sister (Amy Wright), an awkward circumstance as his former wife (Cynthia Sikes) and two children are temporarily living there due to plumbing troubles in their own house. Paul is eager to become closer to his estranged children, but his daughter Sarah (Mary Griffin) has toted an abundance of resentment with her and is puzzled by the obviously ongoing mutual attraction between her parents. During a hectic nuptial weekend, Paul finds an available exchange of ardour with a bridesmaid (Judith Ivey) and this, along with his damaged association with his father (John Mahoney) supplies additional provender for Nyswaner's well-crafted script. Yorkin's fastidious direction allows for able ad libbing from Daniels and Wright, and is nicely supported by resourceful camerawork from Adam Greenberg who employs classic technique when isolating Weaver within a disquieted environment, by superb editing from John Horger, and by faultless sets and costumes from Leslie Rollins and Elizabeth McBride, respectively. In the last analysis, the film fares well because of attention to detail, originating largely from the writing of Nyswaner who strongly evokes small-city working-class Pennsylvania (although primarily shot near Dallas-Fort Worth) with each scene neatly sculpted and generally avoiding the cliched, helped by strong acting through the final scene, remarkable itself for its insouciant sense of actuality.

More of a drama, this movie is one of the saddest movie about love, it only show the worst part of it, in every scene the hero is strained and hurted, you can only cry about his fate until a little before the end, they describe it as "A Painfully Romantic Comedy" on the poster, but they really should change it to "A Painfully Dramatic Comedy " because the romance is simply not present, only rejection and questions about relationship, overall the movie is not badly played or written, but they lied about it, and I don't like being lied to..