September 18th, 2009 - 1:12 pm  Love Happens   To say that Love
Happens should’ve gone straight to video is an insult to films
that have gone straight to video. The story of Burke Ryan (Aaron
Eckhart, dishy but dull), a self-help guru who can’t seem to
help himself, is so tone deaf, so muddled, so poorly put
together, I can only assume that the parts of the movie that
made sense were left on the cutting room floor.  For starters,
what kind of self help guru is Burke? His mission appears to be
helping people get over a recent loss, but his motto is a smarmy
and facile, “I’m A-Okay!” So is Burke, whose wife died in a car
accident, supposed to be a sensitive guy with real insight into
human suffering (except for his own)? Or a cheesy hack?  Burke’s
world is turned upside down by the arrival of florist Eloise
(Jennifer Aniston). I think Eloise is supposed to be quirky and
full of life—she wears hats and drives a vintage truck, tell
tale movie shorthands for free-spiritedness—but the only thing
we really know abou