Divalicious Review! Love Hurts Has More Kung-Fu Punch Than Love
By Caroline Cao | February 7, 2025 | Celebrity & Culture
It’s a positive sign to see martial arts extraordinaire Ke Huy Quan in all his bubbly lovability. It’s another thing when he doesn’t get the most optimal screenplay material. That goes too for Ariana DeBose. Pair these two Oscar-winning actors together for high-octane action, and they should be a confectionary of charms.
Love Hurts has a good premise going for it. It follows a chipper realtor, Marvin Gable (Quan), who is content with selling houses. But he has a dark past, and it relates to Rose (DeBose), an employee Marvin decided to set free against the wishes of his mob boss brother, played by Daniel Wu.
When brutal assassins break into his life, Marvin is equipped with martial arts. Marvin has one hubris: he loves his realtor’s normalcy so much that he might compromise himself to keep it. This leads to a clever sequence of POV shots of his “Best Realtor” certificate getting mortally damaged, and the camerawork plays it as if Marvin’s soul is attached to it. Clever choices like these don’t always square with a screenplay that requires more drafts.
L to R: Lio Tipton as Ashley, Ke Huy Quan as Marvin Gable and Mustafa Shakir as The Raven..
Director Jonathan Eusebio showcases comfort with the gritty fight choreography. The pleasures of this film ebb and flow, such as when we get neat POV shots of said certificate. The camera’s use of DeBose and Guan’s longing looks does not register as passion, despite Quan and DeBose’s proven versatility in other films.
There is more volume in the B-plot romance between assassin Mustafa Shakir and Marvin’s disillusioned assistant (Lio Tipton). The wholesome corniness of their redemptive romance conveys interiors to both of them. If only it didn’t pull its punches for the spotlight couple.
Love Hurts isn’t totally awful. It employs some great fighting scenes. There’s a fun HGTV star cameo and slapstick buddy comedy from football great Marshawn “Beastmode” Lynch and artist André Eriksen; these two may need a spin-off. However, the lack of backstory between Marvin and Rose and the dependency on voice-over narrative make this film one that hurts itself.
Love Hurts is in theaters on February 7.
Image credit: Universal
