In a sentenceKe Huy Quan could have finished another fight in the time it takes anyone to explain the plot
Marvin Gable (Ke Huy Quan) is an estate agent with a former career as a hitman. He wants to keep his mild-mannered present separate from his violent past, but a confrontation with The Raven (Mustafa Shakir) puts his fighting skills back to work. Rose Carlisle (Ariana DeBose) brings the possibility of romance into a life complicated by criminal family business. Marvin has to contend with people who require a different set of skills from those he uses to sell property, while trying to preserve the ordinary life he has made for himself.
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Ke Huy Quan gives this action romance warmth and some nimble fighting, but the script leaves him stranded between explanations and an unconvincing courtship. There is enough ability here to make the waste of it frustrating.
Love Hurts gives Ke Huy Quan a promising comic predicament: an estate agent whose former profession was killing people. Jonathan Eusebio draws an appealing performance from Ke Huy Quan, but the resulting action romance is a disappointment. The fights supply some pleasure, but criminal explanations keep holding things up. The love story offers little reason to care about the interruptions. Even at 83 minutes, there is too much waiting for the film to become fun.
Ke Huy Quan brings a sincerity to Marvin Gable that the writing badly needs, making his mild manners feel like something worth preserving. We enjoyed watching him fight, because the quick movement and inventive use of weapons allow his comic skill to emerge without another speech. Jonathan Eusebio understands how an unlikely fighter can keep a confrontation amusing through resourcefulness, and some sequences justify the casting on their own. Bridger Nielson’s photography gives us a clear enough view of the physical work to appreciate it, though the encounters rarely feel dangerous.
The screenplay, credited to Luke Passmore, Josh Stoddard and Matthew Murray, keeps returning to criminal family business as though additional explanation will make it more interesting. It does not give the people involved enough depth to reward the attention it demands. We were bored by these passages, and increasingly impatient with their habit of interrupting the action. A comedy can get away with an unlikely plot if its characters have something funny to say about it. Here the dialogue leaves the performers doing too much of the work.
The romance has a related problem. Ariana DeBose’s Rose Carlisle is meant to help make Marvin’s story matter beyond the fighting, but the central relationship never becomes convincing enough to carry that responsibility. Both leads have appeal; the screenplay seems to assume that putting them together will finish the job. The side story involving Ashley and The Raven offers a little more pleasure, with Lio Tipton and Mustafa Shakir providing welcome company. That diversion also makes the thinness of the main pairing harder to ignore.
The rest of the craft does little to give the film a personality. Craig Sandells’s production design leaves the fighting in bland surroundings, with too little sense that a particular encounter belongs in a particular place. Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir’s editing gets some momentum into the combat, yet the repeated return to exposition makes the film feel stop-start. Dominic Lewis’s score adds little urgency to the fights, and does not make the pauses between them feel any shorter. Nothing needs to be more elaborate; the film needs fewer explanations, more distinctive places and a reason to believe these two people want each other.
An action comedy can survive a flimsy story; it still needs characters who are enjoyable company when nobody is throwing a punch. Love Hurts has enough skill in its fights to suggest that it could have met that modest standard. It also has a lead we would happily spend more time with, although this film gives him too little worth saying. Unless his physical performance is the main attraction, we would choose something else.
Most critics find Love Hurts a disappointing action comedy, with Ke Huy Quan’s warmth, comic timing and physical agility doing much of the work. Praise clusters around his performance and the fight choreography, which several reviews describe as inventive, playful and crisply staged. Even many negative reviews find something to enjoy in the action, but the prevailing view is that the writing gives the cast too little to work with.
Reservations centre on muddled plotting, heavy exposition, weak comedy and an unconvincing romance. The spread runs from mild enjoyment to outright dismissal, with the fights themselves proving divisive: Variety finds them conspicuously rehearsed, while Vulture calls them predictable and unexciting. Paste offers the clearest positive dissent, finding Quan’s appeal and the entertaining choreography enough to sustain a reasonably pleasant film despite a sluggish second act. The more receptive reviews still acknowledge uneven pacing or a shaky script.
Oller finds the film endearingly silly but says its serious crime-family plot becomes tiring and generic. He praises the comic action, especially the playful fight scenes and inventive weapons.
Read the full review →Turner finds the film patchy but engaging, with Ke Huy Quan’s earnest performance and the action providing its strongest elements. He particularly praises Jonathan Eusebio’s inventive fight choreography and eye for idiosyncratic details.
Read the full review →Erbland finds the film a disappointing showcase for Ke Huy Quan, with muddled plotting and underwhelming action. She singles out the Ashley and Raven subplot as a rare highlight.
Read the full review →Harley finds the film fitfully fun but slapdash, and says Ke Huy Quan deserves a more fully developed vehicle. He praises Quan’s warmth and comic timing as the film’s main strength.
Read the full review →Nugent finds that the film falls short of its potential, with slick action but little comedy and an overcomplicated plot. He praises Ke Huy Quan’s charisma and agility, while faulting the film for failing to make full use of his talents.
Read the full review →The standfirst presents the film as a formulaic actioner rather than a distinctive one. It singles out Ke Huy Quan as a mild-mannered former hitman, but the review body is unavailable.
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Grosse Pointe BlankA hitman’s romantic problems come with sharper dialogue and convincing adult awkwardness.
Kung Fu HustleMore inventive comic fighting, with room for absurdity and affection between blows.
The Long Kiss Goodnight · not reviewed yetAnother attempt at domestic respectability disrupted by professional killing, with sharper comic friction.
The Fable · not reviewed yetA professional killer attempts ordinary life, with considerably more patience for the comedy.
The Man from NowhereA much grimmer option, for action that gives its violence consequences.
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