Love Hurts (2025)

2 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Heart Beatings

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Ke Huy Quan got his great film with Everything Everywhere All at Once. (Although, some would argue, not without merit, that Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies are also great movies.) Love Hurts is not a great movie, and it may not even be a very good one, but it represents a pinnacle for Quan. During the many interviews he gave three years ago, we learned the story of a highly successful child actor who grew up and found work dwindling because of his Chinese heritage. The only parts were "Long Duck Dong"-types, and even those were few and far between. His dream of being a leading man and getting to kiss the girl were well out of reach.

No longer.

Quan plays Marvin Gable, a cheerful real estate agent, who lives to give other people the joy he felt when he bought his first home. He has a grumpy assistant, Ashley (Lio Tipton), who rolls her eyes at Marvin's decorating the office and hosting a Valentine's Day party. Marvin receives an award from his boss and friend, Cliff (Sean Astin, Quan's fellow Goonie), and things are looking up. But then he receives a mysterious Valentine reading "I'm back." And a mysterious killer, The Raven (Mustafa Shakir) appears in his office and tries to take him out.

It turns out that Marvin is a former criminal, an unstoppable killing machine who used to work for his brother, crime lord "Knuckles" (Daniel Wu), but escaped and went straight. Rose (Ariana DeBose, also a recent Oscar winner, for West Side Story) is the reason for all this mess, and now she's back. She threatens to expose the embezzlement of four million dollars and set things straight. But there are many dangerous people to deal with, including hit men King (Marshawn Lynch) and Otis (André Eriksen), Knuckles's right-hand man Renny (Cam Gigandet), and a comic accountant called Kippy (Rhys Darby).

Marvin is in love with Rose and once tried to protect her by helping her escape. Now he's nonplussed that she's back, putting herself in danger and threatening his new life. Meanwhile, Ashley falls in love with the Raven (his poetry touches her soul), and Otis is having girlfriend troubles of his own. Other than that, Valentine's Day is somewhat arbitrary to the story, which is rather more focused on its many beautifully-choreographed martial arts fight scenes and the occasional funny little touch. But it just seems like the story is a bit too complex for what's actually here, and, ultimately, there's not a lot of feeling or things to care about. At 83 minutes, it's hard to complain about length, but maybe there could have been something more.

However, like Marvin, I choose to look at the bright side, and Love Hurts does offer enough to celebrate: effective fights, fun characters, and DeBose and Quan in the limelight.