Gary Marshall has assembled a squad of actors and actresses that would be enough to fill the roles of half a dozen Hollywood movies, but this is Garry Marshall we're talking about! Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride, Princess Diaries, and, of course, one of my favorites, the little-known Dear God. Given his long list of exploits in romantic film, it's pretty understandable that he'd have most of these folks on speed dial. So, after checking out a few of the trailers, my wife and I set off to check it out. (She ended up with more of a test set; I spent thirty minutes waiting in line for popcorn and a Coke. Why don't theaters go back to keeping it simple and doing a few things well?) What I found was a show that makes the guys laugh and brings a tear to the girls' eyes. Perfect for, say... Valentine's Day.

The movie, thanks to its dominant cast, makes you feel like it appeals to everyone. There's the interracial couple, the Hispanic couple, the newly-dating couple,the gay couple, the best- friends-who-should-be-dating couple, the little kid who loves the unattainable, the high school couple about to have sex for the first time, the high school couple that's going to wait until marriage, the old couple who need to renew their love, the couple in love that's not really a couple but shows us real, platonic love. And, of course, there's the couple that's really lust not love that everyone has experienced at least once and will go "oh no she didn't" throughout the movie. That's the beauty of the movie that some people have called spastic or ADHD: it makes everyone, regardless of where you are in love and life, feel like they have someone they can relate to within the plot.

So let's consider these "loves" through a few of their lenses:

• The old love (Hector Elizondo, Shirley MacLaine): Long-hidden secrets come to life after half a century of marriage and tension results.
• The new love (Topher Grace, Anne Hathaway): They hardly know each other but a "terrible" secret comes to light and they'll have to figure out if they still have a future.
• The high school couples (Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner; Emma Roberts and Carter Jenkins): I have to spoil this, because it was completely shocking to me. Neither couple has sex. Call me old fashioned, but it was amazing to me that they didn't have each of the couples flip-flop. Considering that the director once romanticized prostitution, I figured he wouldn't have too much trouble directing a bunch of teenagers to simulate sex. I was wrong.

One of the best draws of the film is the various kids. I'd have to dig pretty deep, maybe Kindergarten Cop, to find a group of rambunctious, endearing, adorable, funny elementary school students. But given the way that the theater crowd is going, they're probably all fifteen year olds acting like they're seven, right? Anyway, they definitely add a dimension of the movie that would be lacking otherwise, and it's always interesting to consider how our children see the big L word. (Love.)

Is the movie formulaic? Yes. Is it a patchwork quilt of stories that intersect and diverge and would put Crash to shame in the middle of LA? Yes. Is it romantic and Hollywood-ized? Yes. But in the end, the movie ends up presenting love (without mentioning God) in a way that I found palatable. Love was about telling people the truth, loving them when they crumbled. Love was about loving people the way they were, even the parts of them you didn't like very much. Love was about forgiving people and forgetting, moving on and growing up. Love was NOT about having sex.

Is it a perfect movie? Does it have fun and use stereotypes, blow up stereotypes, and get you turned around? Of course! But in the end, this film critic, this guy, found Valentine's Day to be one of the most entertaining and thought-provoking romantic comedies that I've seen lately. Embrace love, people.