Review of Stuck in Love (2013) by Aslanmane — 21 Sep 2013

The characters in this movie are quite endearing, although they are never quite fully developed and are painted in unmistakable broad strokes. I liked this movie, a lot, actually. Which just reminds me how sentimental I am and how I like sentimental and almost quaint depictions of love and romance.

The individual family members are more than two-dimensional characters but not by much. We can almost believe they are a family when they are on-screen together. But they are not so well-defined to be able to escape the cookie-cutter design that they came from.

When we see the first talking scene of Logan Lerman's character, it's difficult to shake a feeling of deja vu. It's similar to his character in Perks of Being a Wallflower. But his dorky character works for him. Of course, every good guy has some sort of baggage, the cookie cutter dictates it. **spoiler alert** He has a sick mother. Part of the design to make him more endearing and desirable. A dork with a heart of gold. A fatal and fool-proof combination. **end spoiler**.

For me, the aim of this movie was to show three threads of people experience love/romance/relationship, all three being interchangeable for this discussion. The son, Rusty, experiences first love and the inevitable tumultuous end; Samantha, the sister, experiences a connection with Lou, and finds her jaded view on love replaced by a trusting and romantic love; and the father, going through a rut in his life, putting love aside for a casual friendship with benefits with the married neighbor. For the most part, it worked for me; this isn't a philosophical and introspective movie after all.

I was thankful for the absence of the catty mean girls in high school plot line. But that isn't to say there were no plot lines that were abandoned or resolved with satisfaction. From the start we knew there was going to be a happy ending, but maybe it was too happy. Despite all it's flaws I would like to watch this in the future when I'm feeling down.