Did I just waste 125 minutes of my life?

As far as romcoms go, Richard Curtis’ 2003 criss cross film, Love Actually, set a benchmark. It was as much romantic comedy as multi-toned domestic drama featuring love, strategems and heartbreaks

As far as romcoms go, Richard Curtis’ 2003 criss cross film, Love Actually, set a benchmark. It was as much romantic comedy as multi-toned domestic drama featuring love, strategems and heartbreaks.

Gary Marshall’s 2010 romcom, Valentine’s Day, attempts the same thing. But if it’s a limbo dance, the movie kicks the bar by reaching a floor-kind of low. Oh, it’s a star-studded cast alright: Julia Roberts as an army woman returning home for a day to meet a loved one and striking up conversation with fellow traveller on the plane — Bradley Cooper (remember him only from The Hangover please); Ashton Kutcher as the love-struck florist; Jamie Foxx as the hard-nosed sports journo being forced to cover a soft Valentine’s Day beat...the roll-call goes on.

If there’s one strand of the film that brings some mirth to the whole affair, it’s the receptionist, Anne Hathaway, who moonlights as a sex phone operator, which her date doesn’t find too sexy. But the film ends with viewers shaking their heads and asking themselves, “Did I just waste 125 minutes of my life?”