A Dizzying Cast of Characters Explores Love in Valentine's Day

I was supposed to be a Valentine’s Day baby. Instead, I arrived a couple of days early, which suits me fine, since I tend to have more enthusiasm for Abraham Lincoln, whose birthday I share, than for the holiday that hasn’t been too eventful for me since the end of the elementary school cardboard Valentine mailboxes. Still, I’ve never resented the holiday. I enjoy exchanging Valentines with my parents and a couple of friends, and at some point during the week, I usually make it out to the video store or the theater to catch a sappy movie. Last year, it was Valentine’s Day, a romantic comedy with an expansive cast of characters whose lives intersect on February 14 in, or on the way to, Los Angeles.

Two years ago saw the release of He’s Just Not That Into You, which had a similarly high number of characters to keep track of. Structurally, the two are fairly similar, but Valentine’s Day, directed by Garry Marshall, feels a lot less cynical, celebrating love both young and old and not restricting it to romance, either. While that is a major focus of the movie, it also lauds family relationships, mentorships and general kindness to friend and stranger alike. I found it refreshingly positive.

As with He’s Just Not That Into You, I found myself zeroing in on certain characters and zoning out on others, simply because there were so many. The main character is Reed Bennett, a puppy dog of a florist who absolutely loves Valentine’s Day and who is in an especially exuberant mood this year because his girlfriend has just accepted his marriage proposal. Ashton Kutcher plays Reed, and he surprised me in the role because usually, the mere presence of Kutcher in a movie might be enough to dissuade me from watching. I generally find him obnoxious, but here, he is thoroughly lovable, as is Jennifer Garner, who plays his childhood chum, elementary school teacher Julia Fitzpatrick – though that didn’t surprise me much, as she’s been one of my favorite actresses since her thoroughly endearing turn in 13 Going on 30.

Reed’s idyllic day is about to take a troubling turn. What everyone in the audience realizes long before he does is that his girlfriend is just not that into him – and furthermore, sweet-natured Julia is. But she has a romantic partner of her own, and he has a secret that could wreak havoc on her happiness. Aside from Reed and Julia, I was most interested in Hector Elizondo, always an actor I enjoy, as Edgar, a hopeless romantic still very much in love with his wife after decades of marriage and now ready to pass some wisdom on to his young grandson Edison (Bryce Robinson), who is determined to show the object of his affections just how much he cares. These four characters give us a strong sense of the differences between puppy love, adult romance and mature love that reflects a lifetime together.

Lots of other characters experience love in a variety of ways, too, and it’s fun to see how the different characters interconnect. At the same time, there’s little opportunity to really get to know most of the characters. The movie boasts a dizzying cast list full of familiar names: Jessica Alba, Kathy Bates, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Eric Dane, Patrick Dempsey, Jamie Foxx, Topher Grace, Anne Hathaway, Queen Latifah, Taylor Lautner, George Lopez, Taylor Swift, Shirley MacLaine, Julia Roberts, Larry Miller, Kristen Schaal… There’s scarcely time to pick them out before we’re on to a new scene with new characters to keep track of, and it’s a constant guessing game to figure out what one storyline has to do with the others beyond the general theme.

Some of the situations in the movie are a bit on the risqué side, but the focus here is more often on love than lust, which I appreciated. The film’s biggest flaw is probably that it’s trying to do too much at once. Still, I was more touched than confused by the end of the movie, and while I wouldn't rank it among the best romantic comedies out there, Valentine’s Day makes for pretty enjoyable viewing and may just leave you with a better appreciation of the holiday that inspired it.

"You Saw Me When I Was Invisible."

Last Saturday, I went to the dollar theater and saw Joe Somebody, a less-than-mediocre movie about an average guy who nobody noticed suddenly becoming a somebody in the eyes of his colleagues. That evening, I watched The Princess Diaries, which we had rented a couple days earlier. This movie followed the same basic plot: nobody becomes somebody. However, I thoroughly enjoyed this film while I had little good to say about Joe Somebody.

The Princess Diaries centers around 15-year-old Mia Thermopolis (Anne Hathaway), a young woman completely devoid of grace and glamour. She hides behind a thick bush of frizz and a pair of glasses and is a first-class klutz. The popular kids only take note of her occasionally in order to make fun of her. Her life revolves around her best friend, the defiantly nerdy Lilly Moscovitz (Heather Matarazzo), and her cat Fat Louie, who lives like a king in her bedroom above her mom?s art studio in an abandoned firehouse in San Francisco. She is perhaps the least likely candidate for queendom imaginable, so when her grandmother Queen Clarice Renaldi (Julie Andrews), who is basically a stranger to her, shows up unexpectedly to tell her of her claim to the Genovian throne, Mia is flabbergasted. Her appalled reaction is not exactly what the stately queen had been hoping for.

Clarice explains that Mia's long-absent father was the prince of Genovia. Because of his untimely death, Mia is obligated to accept the role of princess or pass the rule on to a pair of stuffy aristocrats who are next in line. (These two are delightfully despicable and bear a strong resemblance in my mind to the Sackville-Bagginses, the couple in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings determined to inherit Bag End.) After much coercing, Mia agrees to consider the proposal, and she begins her training in courtly manners at the Genovian embassy. She also gets a personal chauffeur, the delightful Joseph (Hector Elizondo), the queen's head of security. Joseph's dry wit provides many laughs, and his empathy keeps Clarice from allowing her role as queen to overshadow her role as grandmother.

The scenes in which Mia attempts to transform herself into a princess are among the most amusing in the movie. I can certainly identify with her awkwardness, and I can only imagine what a disaster I would be as an aristocrat. One thing I can't identify with is the cruelty of Mia's classmates. Characters like Lana (Mandy Moore), the vicious cheerleader who makes Mia's school life miserable, are a teen movie staple, but I can't help but wonder if that sort of behavior really happens. I mean, I'm the biggest nerd around and it never happened to me, at least not to that degree and not in high school. At any rate, the distinction between popular and unpopular is very important in this movie and plays heavily into Mia's ultimate decision concerning her future.

Mia, just like Joe in the aforementioned Joe Somebody, finds herself suddenly surrounded by people who seem to be dying to associate with her. Her sudden popularity thrusts her into confusion, and her eagerness to be one of the cool kids causes her to slight her true friends, including Lilly's adorable brother, Michael (Robert Schwartzman), who is obviously hopelessly smitten with her. With the date fast approaching when she must formally announce whether she will accept the Genovian crown, Mia faces a difficult decision that will drastically affect her entire future.

I wanted to see The Princess Diaries when it was in the theater. I'm a sucker for Disney, and although I have found some of their recent live action films to be a bit lacking, this looked like a winner. For one thing, how often do you see a live action G-rated movie these days? It?s an extreme rarity, which is a shame for someone who almost always prefers G and PG films to PG-13 and R films. So the rating in itself intrigued me. And of course, there is Julie Andrews. The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins are both high on my list of favorite movies, so Julie Andrews is certainly likely to lure me into seeing a movie. Finally, I saw a lot of myself in Mia, and what girl doesn't want to imagine that someone like herself could become a princess?

The movie won me over completely. The plot might not be very original. I already compared it to Joe Somebody, and more specifically in follows in a long line of teen movies about awkward girls coming into their own, risking the loss of their true friends along the way. In this movie, however, we didn't have to deal with the crudeness and foul language that populates most teen flicks. Instead, what we got was a fairy tale film complete with charming characters and a touch of foot-popping romance. I have not read the book, so I cannot comment on the differences. Perhaps my opinion of the movie would be altered had I read the book first. But I find it hard to believe that knowledge of the book would lessen my enjoyment of the film. This is first-rate Disney fare, and I give The Princess Diaries my hearty recommendation.