LOVE HURTS Review: Great Action Can't Save a Middling Story

For those not aware of Ke Huy Quan's comeback story, here's a refresher: a child star of two of the biggest films of the 1980s (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies), he found his career stalled (due mainly to racism), and so became a successful stunt choreographer. On seeing the success of Crazy Rich Asians, he tried his luck and landed a part opposite Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All At Once, an inventive indie film that won critical and box office acclaim, and Quan an Oscar. No wonder he would shortly be snatched up not just for Marvel, but to be front and center with a film that could showcase both his comedic acting chops, and his action talents as well. Unfortunately, Love Hurts only does half the job.

Directed by Jonathan Eusebio (his feature debut), written by Luke Passmore, Matthew Murray, and Josh Stoddard, while Love Hurts does have a good concept, features some terrific action, and the occasional funny dialogue, it's dragged down by a script that wasn't nearly ready, leaving its lead (and other actors) having to work too hard to lift lacklustre material.

Marvin Gable (Quan) is Milwaukee's happoest real estate agent. He loves his job, is friendly with his co-workers, enthusiastic with his clients, and he's one of the most popular faces for drawing grafitti in his many, many ads around the city. But it seems Marvin may have a dark past. He's visited by one killer-for-hire in his office, then later by two goons of his criminal overlord brother Knuckles (Daniel Wu). They're all looking for Rose (Ariane DeBose), a former associate who allegedly stole money from Knuckles; Marvin was supposed to kill her, but he let her go (being secretly in love with her). Now she's back, tired of hiding, and wants Marvin to help her get her revenge so they can both be free.

Let's start with the good: the action. Given Quan's long history with stunts, it's no surprise that the action scenes are the highlight. Taking lessons from Hong Kong martial arts films, these have that feel of a person caught by surprise yet fully aware and taking advantage of everything in their environment. The camera puts this front and centre, and Quan is as smooth as silk and exciting to watch. The coordination, the use of objects, the camera moves around it all in a way that makes it feel both authentic to this world and more than a little bonkers. The four major fiths bookend the film with energy and inventiveness.

The other good point are the actors. Quan manages to combine two qualities not often seen in a character: the guy you want to bring home to your parents, AND the guy you want walking beside you down a dark alley. His charm, somewhat awkward confidence, kindness, and kick-ass moves make him quite an unusual, but still legit, dream. There's a clear chemistry and bond between him and DeBose's Rose, who is doing her best with a sadly underwritten role. Marshawn Lynch as one goon giving love advice to his friend and fellow goon André Eriksen; real estate assistant Ashley (Lio Tipton) falling in love with lone killer and poet The Raven (Mustafa Shakir): everyone is clearly happy to be working together and giving their all to find something to put some proverbial heartmeat on this story. Their commitment to the material and to each other almost makes it worthwhile.

So there are 20 minutes with great action and story at the beginning; there's 20 minutes of great action and middling story (just gets overly complicated while at the same time half-baked) at the end. Again, terrific fight scenes; but that leaves the middle 30 minutes with nothing but story, and this is where the script is just not doing its job. The idea seems to be about showing different ways that people love: finding it, keeping it, rekindling it. But the dialogue is inconsistent in quality (what you see in the trailer is about 75% of what's good), the pacing is too often slow, and some scene swith some very unnecessary voice-over narration explaining what characters are feeling, feels like Eusebio didn't trust either his actors to convey these emotions, or the audience to understand them, a disservice to both.

And even if the dialogue quality were more consistent, there's still a matter of the world of the film. While not everything has to make sense, if there are enough details that don't add up, that just makes an audience ask too many questions. Such as, if Marvin wanted to get away from the criminal world and disappear from his brother, why did he stay in the same city and take a job that would have his face plastered everywhere, without even changing his name? If Rose has only just come back, why does she seem settled in a job and have an apartment that feels like she never left? A film's world is its foundation; a weak foundation makes a weak story, and actors can only do so much without that support.

 Even with the endless charms of Quan and the film's blended action style, even the hard work of the quality actors cannot make for a script that needed a lot more time in development. If an action film is going to have a weak story, there needs to be enough action to make up for it, and enough comedy to fill in the blanks. Love Hurts doesn't quite deliver enough.