Movie Review - The Face of Love

The Face of Love (2014)

Starring Annette Bening, Ed Harris, Robin Williams, Jess Weixler, and Amy Brenneman

Directed by Arie Posin

While certainly pleasant enough and a nice showcase for some "older," more established actors, The Face of Love meanders a bit too repetitively for its own good, hitting the same emotional notes over and over again over its rather short running time.  When Nikki's (Annette Bening) husband dies on a trip to Mexico, she is devastated by the sudden loss.  Five years pass and she still thinks of him nearly every day and although she's gotten the strength to move on, her love for him still continues.  On the urging of her daughter Summer (Jess Weixler), Nikki begins to explore some of the California institutions that she loved visiting with her husband including the Los Angeles Art Museum.  One day, while visiting, she spots a man (Ed Harris) that looks nearly identical to her husband and her world is turned a bit upside down.

In another film, this discovery would lead to a conspiracy surrounding her husband's death, but here this is simply the story of a woman re-falling in love with a similar-looking man.  No mystery here.  While the premise is actually more solid than it sounds (because I admit it seems hokey), The Face of Love fails to really shift emotionally at any point in time during the film.  There's an undercurrent of grief throughout from the very initial scenes in which Nikki is just beginning to cope with the death through to the rather sorrowful feelings we in the audience conjure up as Nikki desperately clings to the new man because of his resemblance to her late husband.  This constant pity that we feel for Nikki admittedly gets a little monotonous and the film fails to create another emotion for us to latch onto.

The Face of Love isn't so much a disappointment as it is a bit of a letdown -- an interesting premise with solid acting that doesn't really go anywhere.

The RyMickey Rating:  C