Warning: This review contains spoilers.
David Leitch, known for intense action films such as “The Fall Guy” (2024), “Bullet Train” (2022) and “Deadpool 2” (2018), produced a new film, “Love Hurts” (2025), which premiered in theaters on Feb. 4. The action rom-com stars Ke Huy Quan as Marvin Gable, a former assassin turned realtor-salesman and Ariana DeBose as Rose, a spy from his past. On its opening weekend, the film grossed $5.8 million domestically.
I rate this film six out of 10 stars, er, hearts, given that it is Valentine’s Day-themed.
Marvin worked for his brother, Alvin “Knuckles” Gable (Daniel Wu), who runs a crime empire. Years ago, Renny and Kippy, two other members of Knuckles’ gang, framed Rose for a grand heist that all three of them collaborated on. When Knuckles ordered Rose to be killed as punishment for her betrayal, Marvin offered to kill her, only because he loved her and knew that if it were anyone else’s responsibility, she’d be dead.
Marvin fakes Rose’s death and leaves his past as a criminal behind him. Despite his clean slate as a friendly, successful realtor, in the words of Céline Dion, it all comes back to him. The trailer promised romance, thrills and comedic moments throughout the film with heavy themes of brotherly rivalry and violence.
I usually love all of Leitch’s action projects. All of the action sequences and stunts in his films, whether he is the producer or director, are electrifying. Given his track record, I came in with high expectations for this film; however, I was left underwhelmed.
The film’s ultimate pitfall is its runtime, averaging about an hour and 23 minutes. The plot is rushed, woefully half-fulfilling and incomplete, with the only benefit being that the movie starts with the action straight away. The movie opens with Marvin immediately receiving a “Valentine card” from Rose and then being physically sacked by the Raven (Mustafa Shakir), a member of Knuckles’ crew who Renny employs to hunt down Marvin and Rose. He wakes up in chains and with a knife wedged between his hands pinning him to the table.
The action begins thereafter and is exciting.
The film’s first fight between Marvin and the Raven is absolutely brutal. I was a little confused by the Raven’s character, as he oddly uses weaponry (darts, large blades he stores in his shoes and hands and his body to do an impressive set of flips and aerobics that make for great physicality fight stunts); however, I suppose it was to prove Marvin’s fighting chops. Marvin suffers serious hits and damage before gaining the upper hand in all of his fights; this was a great creative choice to show that he was rusty and hesitant to immerse himself back into his old life. I appreciated seeing a retired assassin struggle but still be a master at his old craft, especially in the scene where he is later attacked in his home after receiving a regional award for real estate.
That fight was my favorite scene because it showed his determination to ensure nothing bad happened to his award. To Marvin, the award represents his new legacy, as he was beaten and attacked every time he attempted to reach for it before escaping. During the house fight, for example, he stuffs the award in a fridge after tossing it into the microwave. When he reaches for it, his attackers stuff him in the very same fridge and throw it across the room.
The other fight scenes were intense and action-centric, but they all followed the same sequence — except for the fight where Renny’s two goons use a giant fork and spoon. The fights were formulaic: attacker number one usually got kicked to the ground. Hard. Then, goon number two would get punched hard enough to lose a tooth and spray a near-gross amount of blood across the screen, and then the poor man who had happened to be next in line got a combination of all three.
Out of the whole film, the moment that caught me the most off-guard was when Drew Scott’s character, Jeff Zaks, was shot in the head in an attempt to save Marvin during an attack from Renny’s goons.
As for the final fight, I expected a classic Leitch sequence — a pop song playing in tune with the action, blood flying everywhere, emotions and tension at a high and an indescribable, amped-up feeling of anticipating the protagonist will finally get the satisfaction they deserve. Sadly, I didn’t get any of his signature marks.
Now, I know he didn’t direct it, but his works usually retain his signature flair. The song choice, Nazareth‘s “Love Hurts,” matched the film’s title, but its usage didn’t have that enticing feeling that I was waiting for. Marvin finally decides to stop running and “gets his old self back” by using his old ways to defeat his brother. There’s a quick, scrappy scene where he single-handedly takes down a bunch of henchmen, but the action serves up the same violent tone as the previous scenes. When he finally beats him to settle the score, Knuckles moves to kill him and is shot by Rose. Essentially, the movie ends with the Russians he cheated out (who came out of nowhere) hauling him out to be dealt with.
The plot was hyped up to be dramatic with romantic and brotherly tension, but neither translated well on screen.
To start, there was barely any chemistry or scenes between Marvin and Rose. Their characters often have private moments where they monologize their feelings for each other, but they’re shallow. Marvin says that he loves Rose but the audience does not know why, and Rose shows no affection for him. She isn’t sorry for dragging Marvin into the mess she started, nor apologetic for what Marvin has to lose in his new life. Her character keeps repeating the same lines “Hiding ain’t living” and “I need the old Marvin back,” but other than that, there’s no chemistry or substance to her character. I’m not sure if this a screenplay or an acting issue, especially since the Raven and Marvin’s assistant had brief romantic bits throughout the film.
As for the brotherly tension, Knuckles isn’t the main villain, but man is he vicious. He leaves blood and bodies wherever he goes. For example, when Cliff goes to Marvin’s house to get his car keys back, he finds himself face-to-face with Knuckles. Knuckles holds Cliff hostage, and tells him that there is a lot he does not know about Marvin. Cliff acknowledges that may be true, but he focuses on second chances, and that Marvin was one of the hardest-working people he knew. He expresses the most emotion out of anyone in the movie, and just when the camera depicts Knuckles getting teary-eyed and almost emotional, it is revealed to be a facade. Once Cliff establishes the brotherly affection he has for Marvin, Knuckles sighs, saying that he has only one brother—him. He then stabs Cliff in the eye with a boba straw.
Knuckles’ intervening in Marvin’s life isn’t to punish him for his betrayal, but to destroy his life and make him work for him again.
He has no hesitation in beating the absolute heck out of his brother and keeps referring to him as his monster. The final fight between the two was solid and Quan’s portrayal of Marvin’s fear and desperation of losing his new life was palpable. Because of Quan’s impressive acting history, I expected Marvin to have a more adverse reaction to finding out that his brother killed Cliff and still wanted to kill Rose despite her only having committed half the crime.
At the very end, we still don’t know what happens to Marvin and Rose, which is consistent with all of what “Love Hurts” skips out on. Does Marvin accept his past wholeheartedly? Does he continue to acknowledge it? Does he go back to living his new life now that he no longer has to worry about his brother hunting him? How can he go back to work if his boss and real estate competitor were brutally murdered? Does he end up with Rose? And, he had witnesses during one of the fights, how did he ensure they kept his secret? We miss out on the end of Marvin’s arc where he goes from point-blank refusing to acknowledge his old life to embracing it, I guess? I wish we got to see something substantial between Marvin and Rose.
I, for one, don’t know. The movie ends with what I assume is a time-lapse, where there is a black screen for a few seconds after Knuckles is arrested and then we see Marvin return to the bar Rose works at, followed by a kiss.
In short, was I entertained? Yeah. Did I get the action I crave as an avid action movie watcher? Sure. Was this a movie I can say I enjoyed with my whole heart? I’m not so sure.
Final Score: 6/10
