'Love Happens': Formula movie skillfully executed

For a sparkly star vehicle with aspirations no greater than highlighting the perfect bone structure of its featured players, "Love Happens" makes a good case for the three-act formula of a skillfully crafted Hollywood romance.

Those jaws and cheekbones get much of the credit — Jennifer Aniston and Aaron Eckhart are positively radiant — but the script by director Brandon Camp and Mike Thompson lays a solid foundation for all the misty-eyed fluff.

Eckhart plays Burke Ryan, a reluctant motivational speaker who's built a self-help cottage industry on overcoming grief thanks to "A-OK!," the best-seller he wrote after the tragic death of his wife. TV, merchandise, DVD and publishing deals are brewing, but it takes a few slugs of vodka to get him ready for a seminar in Seattle. Maybe things aren't so A-OK after all?

Prancing among the raindrops of a postcard-perfect Emerald City (mostly doubled by Vancouver, B.C.) is Eloise (Aniston), a lovelorn florist who primps the bouquets at Burke's hotel when she's not cracking wise with a spunky assistant back at her shop (Judy Greer).

Just as Eloise has her sidekick, Burke also has a foil in his overbearing business manager, Lane (Dan Fogler).

As expected, Burke and Eloise get off to an awkward start before settling in to the push-and-pull dance of workaday movie love affairs.

What keeps the frivolities fresh and lively are an all-around set of fine performances and a consistently well-thought-out set of circumstances that are tied together with satisfying simplicity.

There are a few weepy moments that have their place, and the movie calls on a big gun for its grand finale. His role as Burke's father-in-law is hardly more than a glorified cameo, but when Martin Sheen turns on the waterworks, you'd better get out your handkerchiefs.

Ted Fry: tedfry@hotmail.com