Valentine's Day

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Those aren't even all the main characters.

Released just before Valentine's Day 2010, the film Valentine's Day boasts an All-Star Cast consisting of Julia Roberts, Jamie Foxx, Jessica Biel, Jessica Alba, Bradley Cooper, Taylor Swift, Hector Elizondo, Ashton Kutcher, Queen Latifah, Kathy Bates, Jennifer Garner, and many, many more. Basically, the film follows the intersecting events of various characters, all taking place on the titular day. There's Reed (Ashton Kutcher), the hopelessly romantic florist proposing to his girlfriend (Jessica Alba). There's Julia (Garner), head-over-heels for a handsome doctor (Patrick Dempsey). Jason's (Topher Grace) just starting to fall for his new girlfriend, Liz (Anne Hathaway). Meanwhile Edison (Bryce Robinson) has a crush on a girl at school. His grandparents, Edgar (Elizondo) and Estelle (Shirley MacLaine) are getting ready to renew their vows. Kara (Biel) has sworn off love, while Sean Jackson (Eric Dane) is facing the end of a relationship and possibly the end of his career.

Nobody's Valentine's quite goes as planned. The flowers don't always reach their intended target, some relationships end, but others blossom. The film also does a good job of weaving the various plots together, and while not all the stories overlap, they form an overall mosaic much the same as the earlier Love Actually. Has a Sequel/Spiritual Successor in the upcoming New Year's Eve.

The movie definitely veers into chick flick territory, but the all-star actors give credible performances to prevent it from becoming too saccharine. Of course, Your Mileage May Vary, but the film's various allusions to its actors and its awareness of various Rom Com tropes make it highly enjoyable.

Not to be confused with Valentine's Day Episodes.

Tropes used in Valentine's Day include:


  • Actor Allusion - Dempsey plays a successful (and two-timing) surgeon
    • When Topher Grace questions the ringtone of his girlfriend, thinking it sounds techno, she says it's more retro, very '70s.
    • Lautner's Willy: "I'm not really comfortable taking my shirt off in public." Possibly the funniest line in the movie for Twilight fans. (Or anti-fans, we're really not picky.)
    • The limo driver asks Julia Roberts if she'd ever shopped on Rodeo Drive. The answer? "Big mistake. Huge."
    • A flight attendant on the airplane Julia Roberts and Bradley Cooper are flying on announces that the weather in Los Angeles has cleared up after "three days of rain" (the title of a play that Cooper and Roberts had starred in together on Broadway).
  • Advertised Extra: Good lord, Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner. A huge chunk of the advertising for this movie had "Starring Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner" and a good chunk of the time didn't even mention any of the other actors in the film (and their then Real Life romance didn't help matters). The two have maybe three scenes in the film and are pretty extraneous.
  • The Beautiful Elite - Nearly everyone in the huge cast is absurdly pretty.
  • Big Damn Kiss: Reed (Kutcher) and Julia (Garner) tries for this. It ends up being really awkward. Kara (Biel) and Kelvin (Foxx) gets one because they were kissing infront of a Green Screen, and Kelvin's coworkers changed the background to a sunset.
  • But Not Too Gay
  • The Cameo - Yes, that's Joe Mantegna who almost gets hit by Kutcher's van
  • Casting Gag: Emma Roberts as the babysitter Julia Roberts's character's son
  • Duet Bonding - Kara (Biel) and Kelvin (Jamie Foxx) get one to the tune of "I Will Survive"
  • Dumb Blonde - Felicia, as played by Taylor Swift, and almost certainly a dig at the way some of the media view her
  • High School Sweethearts - Grace and Alex
    • Felicia and Willy parody the concept

Male Anchor:There you have it, folks. Young love. Full of promise, full of hope, ignorant of reality.

  • Just Friends - Reed and Julia start out this way.
  • Magical Latino - George Lopez's character
  • The Not Love Interest: You would think Bradley Cooper and Julia Roberts's characters would get to get together. He's actually Sean Jackson's boyfriend
  • One Steve Limit: Subverted with the cast which consists of two Roberts (Julia Roberts and her niece Emma), two Jessicas (Alba and Biel), and two Taylors (Swift and Lautner), but averted with two Christophers in which neither actor professionally goes by his real first name (Ashton Kutcher and Topher Grace).
    • The outtakes at the end poke fun at the Taylor and Taylor pairing.

Swift: Hey, I'm Taylor.
Lautner: and I'm Taylor.
Swift: Yeah it's confusing.
Lautner: *Laughs*
Swift: yeah we know that.

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