| Valentine's Day | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Garry Marshall |
| Produced by | Mike Karz Wayne Allan Rice |
| Screenplay by | Katherine Fugate |
| Story by | Katherine Fugate Abby Kohn Marc Silverstein |
| Based on | Valentine's Day Chronicles by Michael Connelly |
| Narrated by | Morgan Freeman |
| Starring | Jessica Alba Kathy Bates Jessica Biel Bradley Cooper Eric Dane Patrick Dempsey Héctor Elizondo Jamie Foxx Jennifer Garner Topher Grace Anne Hathaway Ashton Kutcher Queen Latifah Taylor Lautner George Lopez Shirley MacLaine Emma Roberts Julia Roberts Taylor Swift |
| Music by | John Debney (music) Alexandre Desplat (score) Alan Silvestri Mark Mancina Rolfe Kent (songs) Joel McNeely Thomas Newman (lyrics) |
| Cinematography | Charles Minsky |
| Editing by | Jim Clark Bruce Green Robert Leighton |
| Studio | New Line Cinema |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | February 12, 2010 |
| Running time | 124 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $52 million[1] |
| Box office | $216,485,654[2] |
Valentine's Day is a 2010 American romantic comedy film directed by Garry Marshall. The screenplay and the story was written by Katherine Fugate, Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein.
Contents |
It is Valentine's Day and florist Reed Bennett (Ashton Kutcher) proposes to his girlfriend Morley Clarkson (Jessica Alba), who accepts. Reed’s closest friends, Alfonso Rodriguez (George Lopez) and Julia Fitzpatrick (Jennifer Garner), aren't surprised when Morley changes her mind and leaves Reed the same day. On an airplane to Los Angeles, Kate Hazeltine (Julia Roberts), a captain in the U.S. Army on a one-day leave, befriends Holden Wilson (Bradley Cooper). When the plane lands and Kate has to wait hours for the taxi, Holden offers his limousine, which Kate accepts.
Julia, an elementary schoolteacher, has fallen in love with Dr. Harrison Copeland (Patrick Dempsey), but does not know that he is married to Pamela (Katherine LaNasa). Harrison tells her that he needs to go to San Francisco for a business trip. Wanting to surprise him, Julia also flies to San Francisco, despite Reed's warnings. Julia finds out that he is married and gets the name of the restaurant where he and his wife will be dining that evening. The restaurant-owner allows her to dress as a waitress, and Julia makes a scene at the restaurant. Harrison's wife, Pamela, becomes suspicious. One of Julia’s students, Edison (Bryce Robinson), orders flowers from Reed, to be sent to his teacher. Julia suggests to Edison to give the flowers to a girl named Rani in his class who has a crush on him.
Edison's babysitter Grace Smart (Emma Roberts) is planning to lose her virginity to her boyfriend Alex Franklin (Carter Jenkins). The planned encounter goes awry when Grace's mother discovers a naked Alex in Grace's room, rehearsing a song he wrote for Grace. Edison’s grandparents, Edgar (Héctor Elizondo) and Estelle Paddington (Shirley MacLaine) are facing the troubles of a long marriage. Estelle admits to Edgar about an affair she had with one of his business partners. Although she is deeply sorry, Edgar is very upset. Grace’s high-school friends, Willy Harrington (Taylor Lautner) and Felicia Miller (Taylor Swift), are experiencing the freshness of new love, and have agreed to wait to have sex.
Sean Jackson (Eric Dane), a closeted gay professional football player, is contemplating the end of his career with his publicist Kara Monahan (Jessica Biel) and his agent Paula Thomas (Queen Latifah). Kara is organizing her annual "I Hate Valentine's Day" party, but becomes interested in sports reporter Kelvin Moore (Jamie Foxx), who was ordered to do a Valentine's Day report by his boss Susan Moralez (Kathy Bates); with whom she shares the hatred of the holiday. Paula has hired a new receptionist named Liz Curran (Anne Hathaway), who dates mail-room clerk Jason Morris (Topher Grace). Jason is shocked when Liz turns out to be moonlighting as a phone sex operator. Liz explains that she is only doing this because she has a $100,000 student loan to pay off. Jason is upset, but eventually reconciles with her after seeing Edgar forgive Estelle.
Sean comes out on national television, and Holden, Sean's lover, goes back to him. Kate goes home to greet her son Edison. Willy drops Felicia off at home after a date and they kiss. Kelvin and Kara hang out at Kelvin's news station where they later kiss. Alfonso dines with his wife, and Grace and Alex agree to wait to have sex. Edgar and Estelle redo their marriage vows, Harrison eats pizza alone after Pamela apparently leaves him, and Morley tries to call Reed, while Julia and Reed begin a romantic relationship.
The score to Valentine's Day was composed by John Debney, who recorded his score with the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Sony Scoring Stage. He also wrote a song for the film, "Every Time You Smiled", with award-winning lyricist Glen Ballard which was performed by Carina Round.[3]
The movie's official soundtrack was released on February 9, 2010 via Big Machine Records. It features the movie's leading song, Jewel's "Stay Here Forever", which was released as a single on January 19, 2010 and has charted on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. The soundtrack also includes "Today Was a Fairytale" by Taylor Swift, which debuted at #2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, breaking a record for highest first-week sales by a female artist. Taylor Swift's song "Jump Then Fall" from the Platinum edition of her album Fearless also featured on the soundtrack. Debney's score album, including "Every Time You Smiled", (written by Debney and Glen Ballard, and not included on the song CD) was released digitally on April 7, 2010 by Watertower Music.
Jamie Foxx also recorded a song for the film which is called "Quit Your Job". It appears in the film but not on the soundtrack however, because of profanity in the verses.
"I Gotta Feeling" by The Black Eyed Peas was used for the film's trailer.
Track listing for the score album:
The film debuted with $52.4 million its opening weekend, grabbing the number 1 spot over the holiday that shares its name.[4] The film ousted two other high-profile openings; 20th Century Fox's action fantasy Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, which debuted at number 2 with $31.1 million over three days, and Universal's werewolf film The Wolfman, with $30.6 million.[5] It is currently the third-highest opening weekend in February. On Monday, February 15th, 2010, Valentine's Day went down to #2 behind Percy Jackson and the Olympians:The Lightning Thief, but then went back up #1 on Tuesday. On Friday, February 19th, it went down to #2 behind Shutter Island then to #3 the next day. By Friday, February 26th, it went down to #5 behind Shutter Island, The Crazies, Cop Out and Avatar. By March 18th, it went down to #14. It stayed in theaters until May 6th, 2010.[6] With that record, it is the second biggest opening for a romantic comedy film behind Sex and the City with $57 million. The passing of the Valentine's Day holiday later had the film's box office results quickly declining with a total of $110 million in the United States and Canada as well as an additional $106 million overseas for a grand total of $216 million worldwide.
Despite being a box office success, Valentine's Day received overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics and average reviews from the community.[7] Review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a rating of 18% based on 163 reviews, with an average score of 3.8/10.[8] Among Rotten Tomatoes' selected top critics the film holds an overall approval rating of 16% based on 32 reviews.[9] Its consensus states: "Eager to please and stuffed with stars, Valentine's Day squanders its promise with a frantic, episodic plot and an abundance of rom-com cliches."[8] Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated an average score of 34%, based on 33 reviews.[7] Yahoo movies critics averaged the film's grade as a C-.[10]
Giving the film 3/4 stars, the overall opinion of Carrie Rickey's review for The Philadelphia Inquirer is that "It is a pleasant, undemanding movie that takes place over 18 hours on V-Day and considers Very Attractive People whose romantic destinies converge, diverge, and cloverleaf like the interstates threading through California's Southland".[11] Betsy Sharkey of The Los Angeles Times commented that "The effect of all those spinning songs, stars and scenarios is merry-go-round-like, producing a sort of dizzying collage that no doubt some will adore, while others will just get nauseous...".[12]
Mark Kermode called the film a 'greeting card full of vomit'. Rene Rodriguez for the Miami Herald gave the film 2/4 stars, describing the film as "surfing through the channels of an all-chick-flick cable service."[13] Rodriguez also criticized the film's blandness, stating the film should have "shed some of its blander plotlines[…]and spent a little more time exploring the thrill and elation of being in love – or at least just being horny".[13] Slate movie critic Dana Stevens wrote that the film "lacks in charm, humor, and intelligence...".[14] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film one star out of four.[15] Travers' analysis of the film simply states that "Valentine's Day is a date movie from hell".[15] Jonathan Ross was not complimentary either on his Film 2010 show. He said "I thought the film was just awful".[16]
Valentine's Day is noted for sharing similarities with the British film Love Actually,[17][18][19][20][21] particularly the basic premise of multiple storylines occurring around a popular holiday, and sometimes identical subplots.[18] Many British bloggers and online critics described Valentine's Day as "an American copycat version of Love Actually," focusing on how Valentine's Day, like Love Actually, has an all-star cast whose characters' storylines intertwine with one another.
| Award | Category | Recipients | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 MTV Movie Awards[22] | Best Kiss | Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner | Nominated |
| 2010 Teen Choice Awards[23][24] | Choice Movie: Romantic Comedy | Film | Won |
| Choice Movie Actor: Romantic Comedy | Ashton Kutcher | Won | |
| Choice Movie Actress: Romantic Comedy | Queen Latifah | Nominated | |
| Choice: Chemistry | Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner | Nominated | |
| Choice: Breakout Female | Taylor Swift | Won | |
| Choice: Liplock | Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner | Nominated | |
| Choice: Scene Stealer - Female | Anne Hathaway | Nominated | |
| Choice: Scene Stealer - Male | George Lopez | Nominated | |
| Choice: Hissy Fit | Jessica Biel | Nominated | |
| 37th People's Choice Awards[25] | Favorite Comedy Movie | Film | Nominated |
| 31st Golden Raspberry Awards | Worst Actor | Ashton Kutcher | Won |
| Worst Actor | Taylor Lautner | Nominated | |
| Worst Supporting Actor | George Lopez | Nominated | |
| Worst Supporting Actress | Jessica Alba | Won |
Valentine's Day was released on Region 1 DVD, iTunes and Blu-ray Disc on 18 May 2010.
A sequel announced by director Garry Marshall was in the works. It is called New Year's Eve and is set on December 31-January 1. Marshall returned for the film and writer Katherine Fugate has already written the draft. Marshall wanted some of the original film's cast to return for the sequel. Filming began in New York City in late 2010. The film was released on December 9, 2011.[26] On December 8, 2010 it was revealed that the film is a not a sequel to Valentine's Day and that Jessica Biel and Ashton Kutcher would play different characters.[27]
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