With almost a cast of thousands, this movie features some of the best known names and faces in the entertainment industry today all involved in different stories of love. There is old love, new love, young love, and everything in between. After all, it’s Valentine’s Day.
The Cast and Characters of Valentine's Day
The cast of this heartwarming romantic comedy includes veteran actors Shirley MacLaine, Hector Elizondo, Julia Roberts, Ashton Kutcher, Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Eric Dane, Patrick Dempsey, Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Garner, Queen Latifah, Jamie Foxx, George Lopez, and young Emma Roberts, as well as Taylor Swift. While the stories intermingle throughout the course of the film, most of the actors do not share the screen with more than one or two of the others at any one time, with the exception of a humorous anti-love Valentine’s Day party.
This film is done in the style of many of the older movies that utilized a large stable of talent within one film composed of several different stories. These all happen to have the same theme – love.
Valentine’s Day is interesting in that it reunites, at least on the cast list, some actors who have shared the screen before in some of their most famous and iconic roles. The two hunks from Grey’s Anatomy (Dempsey and Dane) each play totally different kinds of characters in this film than they do in their popular television series. Julia Roberts shares the film with her real-life niece Emma. She also shares the film with Shirley MacLaine, her co-star in Steel Magnolias, and with Hector Elizondo, her costar in Pretty Woman. Anne Hathaway shares the movie with her Princess Diaries costar Larry Miller. And Jennifer Garner and Bradley Cooper shared the small screen together in their hit TV series Alias. There are plenty more reunions viewers will certainly enjoy thinking about as they watch the movie. This is definitely one movie that shortens the degrees of separation between actors.
The Stories
The stories themselves cover the gambit of emotions, all fixated on love. There is the cardiac surgeon who is having an affair while not telling his lover he is married. There are the young high school seniors who are planning on losing their virginity on this Valentine’s Day. There is the love sick florist who just got his proposal rejected. There is the part-time phone “adult entertainer” who is trying to pay off her college loans with this job that manages to interfere in her day job and personal life. There is the aging football star who is on the verge of making a big decision about his life and career. There’s the bitter sports caster who is given the assignment to go out and find stories of love. There’s the senior couple who have to face their worst nightmare. And there are more stories of love which all take place on one day.
Directed by Garry Marshall, who also brought viewers The Princess Diaries 1 &2, Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride, Overboard and many more romantic comedies, Valentine’s Day has everything to make it a perennial favorite. In years to come, people will be pulling out this Blu-ray with its many bonus features, every February, much like they do with White Christmas in December.
Valentine’s Day is an entertaining film comprised of some fun elements as well as an impressive cast. There’s something in here for everyone.
The Blu-ray comes with a DVD and a Digital Copy for portable viewing.
- Studio: New Line Cinema
- Running Time: 125 minutes
- Rated: PG-13 for some sexual material and brief partial nudity
