The Love Patient
Benjamin Lutz has real movie star chops. That much is certain after watching him carry the story of a lying, selfish manipulator from start to finish without ever losing his charm. Handsome but not primped to the nth, Lutz has an easy-going accessibility that makes him an ideal leading man for romantic comedies like this one.
Playing an ad executive who pretends to have cancer as a last-ditch attempt to bring his ex back into the fold, Lutz navigates the character of Paul as an immature but well-meaning huckster and steers clear of the kind of smarmy arrogance that could have poisoned the appeal of his character. Coercing your doctor to lie to your family and carrying on a charade of phony chemo treatments for as long as it takes to get an ex out of his new beau’s arms and into your makeshift home hospital bed is a pretty low tactic; Pulling that off without looking like a downright bad person is no small feat, and in the hands of a lesser actor the story could have crashed and burned before the first I.V. was jammed into the our love patient’s bloodstream.
There are some strong supporting performances as well, such as the delightfully campy scenery-chewing screen time of Madison Gray as Paul’s foil and younger sister Madison, a self-made woman who resents her brother’s uncanny ability to luck out despite his clumsy, self-centered ways. Paul’s mother (Laura Ulsh) is also a force to be reckoned with, particularly when she hosts a macrobiotic dinner and hallucinogen-spiked new age-y ceremony led by a wild-eyed hippie with an indiscernible accent named Earth (Annabelle Monroe).
John Werskey, as Paul’s ex Ted, brings things down to earth as he earnestly struggles with Paul’s condition with his residual affections bubbling up to the surface, and the events unfold just as they should, although the pace does drag at times.
There is a streak of a sort of sitcom television mildness running through The Love Patient that stops it just short of its potential. This is, after all, a pretty dark affair, what with the C word hovering over everything, but other than a feather-light storyline involving a young boy who is afflicted, much of the story is played safe, almost to the point of blandness, and there are scenes where the actors visibly struggle to bring life to some stilted bits of dialogue. In a TV format, Paul’s apartment, where he spends most of the film, might suffice as the primary set, but on film the apartment doesn’t provide enough visual bang for your movie buck. It feels and sounds a little empty and stifling.
In any case, the premise for the The Love Patient provides a gutsy platform for the rom-com antics therein, and the conniving primary character Paul is brought to life with warmth and affability by actor Benjamin Lutz, whose love patient could drive a man’s man to a rush degree in nursing.