Movie titles that indicate the fact that the movie is going to be all about romance scare me, so Stuck in Love pretty much sounds like a nightmare to me. Yes, I’m one of those romance hater types and nobody should ever invite me to the cinema to see a rom-com – even the idea of it makes me a bit dizzy. Then again, I always say that one should watch bad movies to recognize the greatness in the good ones, so even I have to find some courage and watch a movie about romance at some point. So I did, I was super brave and finally watched Stuck in Love – and since my life is a big pile of irony, I ended up liking it.
Stuck in Love is not necessarily one of those multiple love stories happening simultaneously kind of movie like He’s Just Not That Into You or Valentine’s Day but it does feature three to four different relationships. More precisely, the movie revolves around a family – the divorced father (Greg Kinnear) still in love with his ex wife and the mother of his children (Jennifer Connelly), the angry daughter who hates love (Lily Collins) and the shy teenage son (Nat Wolff). Now, you must be wondering why I liked the movie so much when it clearly sounds like romance would be pouring out of every character – truth to be told, it wasn’t as romantic as it could have been.
The movie never took things too extreme in terms of love but kind of kept it away from the typical movie screen romance clichés that I dislike a lot. And since one of the love stories in Stuck in Love featured Logan Lerman, who I adore, I was pretty much sold right away. The guy is simply adorable (hence the adoring) and he even made me like Lily Collins which surprised me. Another great character that lifted Stuck in Love was played by Kristen Bell and since I adore her too, I was almost destined to like this movie just based on the supporting roles.
Then again, all of that had nothing against the reason why Stuck in Love surprisingly ended up in my good-movie-list – I’m a sucker for movies featuring writers and this movie had three! That’s right, the father, the daughter and the son all were writers and whilst there wasn’t much writer-angst and inner turmoil surrounding their story telling, just the notion of them being writers makes me love all of their characters. It’s just my personal thing, I’m like drawn to writers in movies and when a movie has three, it’s really difficult to hate the movie. And there’s nothing in particular to hate in Stuck in Love because it is a heartwarming story of a family trying to come in terms with love of all kinds.
When it comes to acting, I can’t fault any of them really, especially in this genre (I don’t find romantic movies to be as demanding and yet there was some drama!). Kinnear and Connelly are pretty much veterans on screen anyway, Collins didn’t bother me, Wolff was a surprise in terms of depth and every time Lerman was on screen he stole the scene. Bell’s character was extremely refreshing and if I would have to point out a weak link, Wolff’s love interest definitely stood out a bit in terms of her acting chops. But Stuck in Love definitely had some great moments and I especially fell in love with Connelly, man that woman is gorgeous!
All in all, Stuck in Love doesn’t really tell anything new, it doesn’t surprise us with plot twists and it doesn’t shock us with anything really – it’s just a lovely story about a family and their struggles. They do struggle and whilst IMDb lists it as a comedy and a drama, I would prefer to call it just a light drama. Yes, there is comedy here and there, but there’s also romance, so I’d prefer to round it up into a light drama but definitely not the Hallmark kind. So whilst I learned nothing new or experienced a lot of emotions at once, I still think Stuck in Love was a rather pleasant experience and definitely not the kind that a rom-com hater would run away from.
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I’m so with you on romantic comedies. I always get stuck watching them at work. I can’t even think of a “romantic comedy” I like, just ones I can tolerate. (Unless we classify Mean Girls as a rom com)
500 Days of Summer I kind of like. But otherwise it’s usually awful.
This might be the only movie where Lily Collins doesn’t play an insufferable character (and becomes likable). That might have been because of Logan Lerman. It’s not those sickly rom-coms (read: stuff Katherine Heigl appears in) but is pleasant in its own way. It’s downplayed. Oh, and I liked the scene when Nat Wolff’s character looks underneath the blanket and breaks down. It seems so “outside-teenage-jurisdiction” kind of scene.
I haven’t seen any other Lily Collins movies to be honest but I’ve seen her interviews and I just didn’t care for her before this role at all.
And indeed, that was a very powerful scene in its simplicity.. Wolff is definitely going to blow my mind in The Fault in Our Stars!
Lily Collins is so beautiful. I don’t think she’s the best actress though haha.
How would you rank the cast?
Lerman is strong, the older cast is also strong, I actually think Collins is stronger because of Lerman.. I’d say a solid 3.5 out of 5 but I’m not the best in ranking things.