Love Hurts

In the ten years since John Wick came out, I hope it is a proud parent of all the films it has seemingly birthed. Not only have there been three more Wick-films, but also films like Nobody, Monkey Man and Atomic Blonde, all attempting to capture that lightning in a bottle, like Wick did. Now, there is a new challenger in the form of recent Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan with his new film Love Hurts, but the question is—does it land its punches?

Martin Gable (Ke Huy Quan) is a dangerous man. As the top realtor in the area, he can sell you a house before you can even say, “I love this place.” But Martin was once the best at something else—killing people for his brother, Knuckles (Daniel Wu). That was in the past. You see, Martin was supposed to kill Rose (Ariana DeBose), but since he was in love with her, he let her go, telling her to disappear—something she did, for a little while. Now, with Valentine’s Day here, she starts sending little letters, letting the people who thought she was dead know that she’s alive—something they don’t want. Knuckles sends other killers to find Rose, which means tracking down Martin and demanding answers. Martin doesn’t know where she is, but that’s not the answer they’re looking for. When push comes to shove, flashes of the old Martin start to surface. Luckily for him, he doesn’t have to find Rose—she finds him. While she has her mind made up, Martin must decide if he still wants to run from his past or finally face it.

Written by Matthew Murry, Josh Stoddard, and Luke Passmore, the script is the weakest link in Love Hurts, serving mostly as a connection between action set pieces. Those action pieces are impressive though, as you would expect from a director who was an assistant under John Woo and a stunt performer himself. I just wish there were more of them, as the scenes in between lack life on the screen, forcing the actors to bring whatever energy they can to their characters. That is Love Hurts’biggest mistake—not leaning into the fight scenes more, making this movie feel like a night of good casual sex, but definitely not relationship material.

Love Hurts entertains when fists are flying, but a weak script and an over-reliance on voice-over narration keep it from even being a KO. Despite its flaws, Love Hurts can be entertaining—but barely—as its missteps constantly get in the way of what it does right. Issues like tone, subplots, and questionable editing drag it down, but when the fights break out, it evokes the style and blood-soaked intensity of classic Hong Kong cinema. The cast fits well, with Quan and DeBose leading the way and proving that their presence only elevates a film. The upside? Love Hurts clocks in at just eighty-three minutes, and while most of them could be better spent elsewhere, there’s a damn good twenty-five-minute movie here. Love Hurts will break a lot of hearts for what it isn’t, but for me, it does just enough. While love may not be in the air, I’ll at least hang out with it for the night.