If you are happily in love, Valentine’s Day is a day of hearts and flowers, romance and sentiment. If you are among those who are unlucky in love, it is just another day.
“Some people think Valentine’s Day is the best thing and others try to block it out. It means different things to different people. The other holidays are all clearer,” says director Gary Marshall with his trademark deadpan delivery, noting, “Christmas, we decorate a tree, you give me a present, we sing nice songs, go home, go to bed. New Year’s Eve, you drink, you kiss at 12 o’clock, sing Auld Lang Syne and cry, go home, go to bed. That’s simple. Got it. Arbor Day…not the biggest holiday, but getting bigger because we’re all ‘going green.’ But Valentine’s Day is vague. It’s a hard holiday to define because love is so hard to define and that’s why it makes for a good story. Why not do a romantic comedy about the day we’re all concentrated on romance, and that’s ‘Valentine’s Day.’” (more below)
Seen through the eyes of a multigenerational cast of characters, “Valentine’s Day” threads its way through a variety of relationships—from first dates to longtime commitments, from young crushes to old flames, and from perpetual singles to unrequited loves.
The film stars Jessica Alba, Kathy Bates, Jessica Bie, Bradley Cooper, Eric Dane, Patrick Dempsey, Hector Elizondo, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Topher Grace, Anne Hathaway, Ashton Kutcher, Queen Latifah, Taylor Lautner, Shirley MacLaine, Emma Roberts, Julia Roberts and Taylor Swift, in her feature film debut.
Screenwriter Katherine Fugate says that she created the interwoven stories in the screenplay “to show how love was approached from different angles and different generations—from the unjaded 10-year-old boy with his first crush, to the thirtysomethings dealing with their relationship, or lack thereof, all the way to the older married couple looking back at the journey of love they have taken together. Love also takes on many different faces that go beyond romance, but at the end of the day, love always brings us back to what is most important in life.”
Screenwriting partners Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein, who recently demonstrated their knack for ensemble comedy with the hit “He’s Just Not That Into You,” helped develop the story. “When we met with Garry and the producers, we were all interested in having the film cover a lot of perspectives, especially in capturing the different feelings people have about this holiday,” says Silverstein.
Bringing another age group into the already multigenerational story, Kohn and Silverstein also recognized the importance of including a teenage romantic angle. “When you’re a teenager, there are a lot of firsts when it comes to love and romance,” Kohn says, “but it’s not something you typically think of with regard to Valentine’s Day. We wanted to make sure that the film had something that could speak to almost anybody.”
Marshall states, “‘Valentine’s Day’ covers various types of relationships, and I think they all work very well because all our actors were so good. The most important thing was finding the right chemistry. Nobody can define it, but the audience knows when it’s there.”
Opening soon across the Philippines , New Line Cinema’s “Valentine’s Day,” will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.
