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 How much does love hurt? The new film Love Hurts, written and directed by Barra Grant, aims to answer that question.
Love Hurts tells the story of Ben Bingham (Richard E. Grant), an ear, nose and throat doctor who is married to Amanda (Carrie-Anne Moss) and has a 17-year-old son, Justin (Johnny Pacar). When Justin starts looking at colleges, Amanda gets cold feet about being alone in the house with Ben, a horribly obtuse husband who thinks that Amanda’s crying jags are caused by his mother-in-law. Amanda moves out, leaving Ben in a deep tailspin that involves drinking Sloe Gin Fizz after Sloe Gin Fizz and destroying monsters in his son’s video games.
At the behest of Justin, Ben changes his lifestyle and starts enjoying being single again. His new haircut and cool clothes are just what Darlene (Jenna Elfman), Ben’s nurse, Hannah (Janeane Garofalo), Ben’s personal trainer, and karaoke singing twins need to start courting the suddenly hottest single man in a very small town. After some doubts, Ben relishes his newfound status as the town hunk to the point where he starts to ignore Justin and his new problem: falling in love with a Russian ballerina who is training and performing in New York City.
 After a well-timed minor character tries to sell Ben’s house, Ben discovers that he has an attic and realizes that Amanda had kept a lot of memorabilia in it. Pretty much everything that Ben and Amanda had done together that was significant in their life Amanda had kept up in that well-hidden attic. From bad Halloween costumes to a jock strap to diving equipment, his wife had kept it all. Ben quickly realizes the error of his ways and starts trying to win Amanda back.
The concept of the film is surprisingly refreshing from a romantic comedy point of view; most current romantic comedies involve putting two young and sexy characters together in ridiculous situations and having them inexplicably fall in love. Love Hurts defies this by having a different set of main characters: an older couple that have been married for 20-plus years. The comedy and drama come from how this couple is forced to reconsider what they’ve come to know and grow comfortable with for the last 20 years.
Unfortunately, Love Hurts does not accomplish this. The character of Ben, portrayed as well as he can by Richard E. Grant, is so doltish and obtuse he comes off as being slightly mentally retarded. Barra Grant needs to trust that her audience can understand that a character can ignore the love of his life and not be a complete and utter moron. Any woman married to Ben would have done the exact same thing Amanda does. It’s hard to feel sympathy for Love’s main character when viewers identify more with the character who’s causing him pain.
 Sadly, this is just a small part of what’s wrong with this film. The writing is generally shoddy with a few zingers thrown in here and there. A perfect example of some writing that needed to be reworked: the son, Justin, happens to be a bit of a player for his age. The movie shows this by having three separate girls come up and hit on Justin in one scene. This is the only indication of his ability to have “friends with benefits” from all over the city (err, small town). It’s never spoke of again, and it seems like this character trait was just written in to make it seem more plausible that Justin could mentor Ben into being the cool stud that the single women in town drool over.
The acting for the most part in the film is very good, given the material the actors had to work with. There are a slew of small parts from strong women in this film: Janeane Garofalo does her best impression of herself by playing a nebbish personal trainer, and Camryn Manheim does a great job of being Amanda’s friend and confidant, although she’s only in a couple of scenes.
The performances from Elvina Beck and Marcella Lentz-Pope are also worth mentioning. They portray Justin’s young female friends, Zoe and Kat. Both work their small parts into something more than what they could have easily been.
 Still, Love Hurts could have been a much better film. It’s sad to see such a well-cast movie that offers audiences so little. How much does love hurt? In the case of Love Hurts, love can be quite painful and just a touch dull.
Love Hurts is now playing at the Laemmle Santa Monica 4-Plex and Laemmle Town Center 5 in Encino.
For more information about the film, visit the movie’s official Web site.
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