BY CHERALYN BARRINGTON
Lions’ Pride Assistant Layout Editor

The Valentine’s Day movie is a circus of A-list celebrities wrapped in a chocolate covered bow.

Valentine’s Day centers on the lives of a variety of people on the holiday of the same name. It depicts different types of love ranging from a school boy crush to high school sweethearts to lifelong romance. The movie featured a string of familiar faces such as Ashton Kutcher, Jennifer Garner, Julia Roberts, Kathy Bates, Shirley MacLaine Anne Hathaway, Queen Latifah, Patrick Dempsey, and many more. The characters were each involved in different romance scenarios with their stories intertwined.

Movies starring many popular celebrities run the risk of being problematic with each celebrity vying for attention or trying too hard to out-act the others. However, Valentine’s Day was refreshingly balanced and without attention thieves. Since so many celebrities were packed into one film, no celebrity gets a large chunk of screen time. Instead, the movie alternates telling different stories, which makes for an entertaining plot, but at the same time may not give the watcher adequate time to truly feel for the characters.

The celebrity who makes it on screen the most is Ashton Kutcher, who recently made a big-screen comeback in the movie Spread. In Valentine’s Day, Kutcher plays a sweet, kind-hearted florist named Reed who proposes to his girlfriend Morley (played by Jessica Alba) on Valentine’s Day morning in hopes that she will become his wife. Kutcher’s best friend Julia (played by Jennifer Garner) has love troubles of her own after falling for Dr. Harrison Copeland played by Grey’s Anatomy’s “McDreamy” Patrick Dempsey.

The variety of characters throughout the movie assists the film in appealing to a wide range of people with the movie’s hopeless romantics, cynical Valentine’s Day haters, teen couples, an elderly couple, puppy love, and many other displays of affection. Valentine’s Day holds all of the components of a great romantic comedy; it is cute, comical and has a few sly tricks up its sleeve.