Netflix Comedy Drama With A Bad Star Searching For All The Right Words

By Robert Scucci
| Updated 1 hour ago

Imagine a world where greeting card companies have a disproportionate amount of power over their employees and use their resources to manipulate the masses, one sappy love letter at a time. This is the world Bob Odenkirk’s Ray Wentworth occupies in 2017. Love Daya romantic crime comedy that is as absurd as it is ambitious. Played straight as a legitimate crime drama loaded with deadpan dialogue, Love Day as sweet as a box of chocolates on Valentine’s Day, and as sticky as a jilted ex-boyfriend who slashes your tires when they realize they’ve left their Elliot Smith record at your place and they discover you’ve blocked their number when they will try to restore it.

While I wanted to love this movie because I’ve been a fan of Odenkirk’s work ever since Mr. Show with Bob and DavidI can’t say it’s the Bad Break a Better Call Saul a star’s finest hour. The storyboard is insane, but the concept itself would have been better served by a 30 minute runtime rather than being stretched into a feature film clocking in at 70 minutes.

The Author’s Conundrum

Love Day begins with Ray Wentworth (Bob Odenkirk), recently divorced alcoholic greeting card writer works for AAAAA Greetings. Known for writing sweet things that are equal parts pathetic and profound, Ray is a household name, and his contributions to the greeting card industry are legendary. However, Cormac McCarthy once said “if there’s an occupational hazard to writing, it’s drinking,” and Ray tends to get lost in the sauce more often than it’s clear, resulting in a serious bout of writer’s block and a healthy amount of blackouts lead. to his termination of AAAAA Greetings.

Ray runs into a former colleague, now homeless, named Taft (Larry Fessenden), who left the business to pursue a career as a novelist. Given an all-too-real glimpse of his own future through Taft, Ray knows he doesn’t have much time to get his life back on track.

The Elaborate Installation

Over the next three months onwards Love Day timeline, Ray turns to alcoholic depression. That is, until Ray is contacted by his former boss, Stuyvesant (Alex Karpovsky). Stuyvesant explains that the state of California is holding a card writing contest for a new corporate holiday called Valentine’s Day.

The one golden rule for the competition is that present Greeting card workers are not allowed to participate, which makes Ray the perfect man to do the job.

When Ray sneaks into his old AAAAAA office to get some supplies, he finds a mortally wounded Taft, bleeding out from a stab wound. Waking up the next day in his bed after being knocked out by an unseen assailant, Ray has a hazy memory of the events that happened the night before.

After being confronted by a homicide detective named Miller (Kevin O’Grady), Ray meets a charming woman named Jill (Amber Tamblyn) and learns that she owns a greeting card shop. Sparks between the two soon-to-be lovers quickly ignite, and things are starting to look up for Ray on the romantic front.

Reinstated with a muse-like figure, Ray has a whole new set of problems to deal with after learning that Miller works for AAAAA Greetings and Paper Hearts – two rival greeting card companies both owned by the Gundys Brothers, Robert (Stacy Keach) and Dillon (never seen on screen). Warned by Miller that he will be framed for Taft’s murder if he does not bend to the will of the Gundy brothers, Ray finds himself at the center of a major conspiracy to make sure Valentine’s Day goes off without a hitch trouble

Should Have Been A Comedy Skit

Love Day suffers from one serious problem that undermines its storytelling: it shouldn’t have been a movie. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve extolled the virtues of a tight runtime with fast pacing in the past, but only if the format makes sense for the story being told. in my mind, Love Day it would have been a powerhouse extended skit living in the Mr. Show universe, not unlike the extremely gritty and surreal 1994 skit “Love and Sausage” produced by The Children in the Hall.

Love Day it is not without its charms, however. Narrated by David Lynch, and featuring Steven Michael Quezada (Bad Break) as Ray’s crotchety landlord Munoz is an adequately acted comedy with excellent chemistry among its main cast, but it leaves me wanting less, which in this case would be more than enough to convey his point of view.

You can stream Valentine’s Day on Netflix if the drama, deception and dead delivery sounds like something you’re looking for in your life.