Genre: Comedy/Romance
Director: Nia Vardalos
Cast: Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Judah Friedlander, Zoe Kazan, Stephen Guarino
RunTime: 1 hr 38 mins
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films
Rating: PG (Sexual References)
Official Website: http://www.ifcfilms.com/films/i-hate-valentines-day

Opening Day: 4 February 2010

Synopsis:

Meet Genevieve (Nia Vardalos). She loves romance. She loves flowers. She loves Valentine's Day. All of which is fitting as the owner of "Roses for Romance," a quaint flower shop in the heart of a friendly Brooklyn, NY neighborhood. Her one problem is that she hates relationships. Having been hurt numerous times in the past when it comes to matters of the heart, Genevieve keeps herself happy by not letting any one man in. Dating is a game to her, a game she is very good at. Genevieve doesn't get dumped and never gets hurt because she doesn't stick around long enough for things to get ugly. Then she meets Greg (John Corbett).

Movie Review:

There are many reasons to hate Valentine Day. For guys who are attached, their hate might be streamed by the pressure to fork out money for their girlfriends in order to be romantic with the masses. For singles, they might hate it purely because of the sights of the lovely dovey couples that floods the public area during that Special Day. I Hate Valentine Day had none of that and in fact, it had very little to do with Valentine Day or hating it. It basically served as an excuse for Nia Vardalos to try and recaptured the success of My Big Fat Greek Wedding with costar John Corbett after a string of not so successful ventures (ie. My Big Fat Greek Life - a the tv series that got canned pretty quickly & My Life in Ruins which was largely panned by the critics).

For all it's worth, I Hate Valentine Day just reaffirm that Nia Vardalos's success with My Big Fat Greek Wedding might just be a one hit wonder after all.

It all starts from the uninspired brainstorming session that came up with a movie title that made very little sense or relation to the movie. It's not about someone hating Valentine Day! It's about a perpetually 'happy all the time' woman Genevieve Gernier (played by Nia Vardalos) with her crazy stupid idea of dating the opposite sex for only 5 times so that the romance will be fondly remembered and it would not ends with heartbreaking misery.

Genevieve's game plan for romance in life is as silly as how the movie title is irrelevant to the movie itself. In fact, it's so silly that it's predictable that her plan will come and bite her on her own ass when she met the really special someone. This movie would go on to laden the pace by adding supporting characters that were in awe with this stupid plan and seek her advice on how to date. The writers tried to be witty by adding a subtle subplot involving a distraught relationship with Genevieve's cheating father. But the subplot was placed so far back on the back burner that it was ineffective and just another unnecessary detour for the movie.

It wasn't just the main plot that is lacking, the supporting comedic elements here are a dismay bunch too. Genevieve is flanked by two gay workers in her florist and this movie thinks that it could draw out laughter just because the two actors behaves in the extreme gay behavior. The mentality of drawing such cheap laughter just felt rather passe and tired. The dialogues that aimed to be funny also felt unnatural and awkward. While some moments, the movie was going for the 'cold moments' gag, it failed miserable and instead draw attention that for the better part of the movie, it's fill with 'funny' dialogues that didn't hit it's marks at all. To sum it up, it's sitcom materials that waiting to be can

However the worst offender here would be Nia Vardalos's performance and it deserved The Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress (for this movie and My Life in Ruins, check the results on 6 March 2010). It's a well spotted nomination as her performance here felt like she could only managed one expression (the smiley expression to convince the audience that she is happy all the time type of gal). It felt so pretentious and unreal that after a while, you would start to wonder if her face was made out of plastic (but then at the third quarter mark, she managed to give a cardboard sad expression to express her self inflicted woes that you realized that she is capable of more than one expression). She brought nothing to her character (except cardboard) that would make one feel for Genevieve's self inflicted silly ordeal and the combination of those two elements felt like a double whammy.

To be fair, it's not going to be the worst movie that you catch in a cinema. It largely a formulaic movie about love's trials and tribulation. It's just that it was rather tiresome, cliche and badly executed movie that made it so irksomeness for me. Given that it had a local release date that is near Valentine Day, it's not hard to see who are the targeted audience for this movie. It's highly likely that all the lovebirds want to do would be to cuddle in front of a big screen while something (that resemble  romance) is being projected. This review would probably not matter to them, unless you are a discerning movie fan who is getting dragged to watch this for the sake of Valentine-ism by your partner.

Movie Rating:



(I hate Dread this Movie)

Review by Richard Lim Jr