Accidental Love

''Accidental Love'' is a 2015 American romantic comedy film directed by David O. Russell (under a pseudonym) and written by Russell, Kristin Gore, Dave Jeser, and Matt Silverstein, based on Gore's 2004 novel ''Sammy's Hill''. The film stars Jessica Biel, Jake Gyllenhaal, Catherine Keener, James Marsden, Tracy Morgan, James Brolin and Kirstie Alley in her final film role.

Production started in 2008 under the title ''Nailed'', but filming was frequently halted due to financial difficulties, leading to Russell quitting the project in 2010. The film was completed without his involvement and he has since disowned it, leaving the finished product credited to " Stephen Greene". The film was released online on February 10, 2015, before a limited release on March 20, 2015, by Millennium Entertainment. ''Accidental Love'' was panned by critics.

Premise

Alice, a waitress in small-town Indiana, is accidentally shot in the head by a nail gun. Her lack of health insurance renders her unable to have the nail removed, leading to mood swings and hypersexual behavior as a result of brain damage. Alice then heads to Washington, D.C. to campaign for those with bizarre injuries, with the support of an unprincipled Congressman.

Plot

Alice, a waitress in small town Indiana town who serves food as a roller waitress. Scott the local police officer is seemingly in love with her and the most desirable bachelor in town. He approaches Alice to ask her out on a date where it is obvious he intends to ask her to marry him. During the dinner date at the Gondola a repairman is nearby using a nail gun. Scott gives Alice the ring but it does not fit her (and is too tight). As soon as he makes the proposal and Alice accepts the repairman falls from his ladder onto Alice with his nail gun and fires a nail into her head.

Alice is taken to the hospital where the doctors refuse to operate on her because she does not have insurance. The Doctors inform her that the nail will influence her psychologically making her uninhibited (sexually) & rendering her to fits of rage & bouts of speaking in a foreign tongue she may have been exposed to as a child. Scott takes back his proposal at the sound of this because he does not want to marry a woman with a nail in her head & prone to bouts of anger though he is conflicted about the sexually uninhibited part. On the one hand Alice has never experienced an orgasm at all & Scott tells her that women are not supposed to experience an orgasm and that it is normal to never having experienced an orgasm.

Alice's parents try a fundraiser to raise money for her operation but the relatives and townsfolk cannot come up with more than lose change. The local vet tries to perform a free operation but is not successful and Alice has temper tantrum where Scott definitely breaks things off with Alice and starts to go out with Alice's co-worker (at the burger joint where she roller blades & serves food).

Alice is consoled by other people who show up at the fundraiser including the local pastor Reverend Norm who is suffering from an experimental drug's effect where he has a perpetual erection. He is accompanied by Keyshawn an African American gentleman who has a problem with his posterior that is also pending treatment but none of them can afford to get it treated because they do not have healthcare.

Alice is unhappy and depressed when she sees Congressman Howard Birdwell on television speak about how he loves people, how he wants to serve the people of Indiana, how he wants to invite everyone to come speak to him & how he will do everything to serve the people of Indiana. Alice has an idea that she wants to go see the Congressman and everyone dissuades her but she is determined when her father hints at making a ramp for Alice in case Alice the roller-skater loses her ability to walk.

Alice leaves in the church bus with Reverend Norm & Keyshawn for Washington DC. As soon as she arrives she is refused access to the congressman (Birdwell) because it turns out that Rep Howard is controlled by his party seniors particularly Rep Pam Hendrickson who wants to take control as Speaker of the House & wants funding for her military moon-base so she can protect America & keep it "un blown".

When Alice is shut out Keyshawn falls in love with a security guard & departs with her on a date and the Reverend is sent back to the Motel to nurse his erection. Alice waits in the hallway when Congressman Howard shows up & they fall in love & make love to each other and Alice has an orgasm finally while the Representative (Howard) has the best sex of his life. Howard promises to help Alice & her friends if she agrees to support the moon base. He would try to tack on the health care bill along with the moon base funding. Meanwhile Rep Pam has garnered the support of the local girl scouts who were falsely promised an appearance by Shakira.

Alice & the girl scouts do their bit to promote the moon-base on the press promotional event. However they find out that Rep Howard lied to Alice and Rep Pam lied to the girl scouts. Meanwhile speaker of the house Buck McCoy is so happy with the moon-base funding PR hype that he makes it "his" project & begins to take credit for it while enjoying the girl scout cookies that were baked in honor of the moon-base. Rep Pam is unhappy about this. At this point Speaker Buck McCoy chokes on his cookie and though they try to revive him with e defibrillator Rep Pam unplugs it (secretly) and Speaker Buck McCoy dies.

At the funeral Alice hijacks the podium and convinces everyone present that Speaker Buck McCoy wanted everyone to have healthcare & did not care about the moon-base. Meanwhile the girl scouts upset with the betrayal over Shakira begin to promote the moon-base cookies as toxic & start promoting the "Alice's Law" bill which would give everyone healthcare.

Rep Pam is upset and plots revenge. Her henchman decides to afflict the girl scouts with poison ivy & promote the false impression that girl scouts are promoting child hood lesbianism. Rep Howard disappears & Rep Pam brings Officer Scott from Indiana to convince Alice to return to Indiana as his girlfriend. Alice discovers the ruse & asks Officer Scott to help her. Officer Scott tracks down Congressman Howard who is at a retreat trying to regain his manhood. Officer Scott convinces Howard to return. Meanwhile when congress convenes and Rep Pam is promoted to Speaker Pam she accuses Rep Howard of sleeping with lobbyists to promote his own interests & accuses him of doing the same with Alice. Rep Howard confesses & decides to change his tune about leaving the party & promoting the health care bill & repentant he returns to the party fold. Alice tries to ask congress to consider her plight but they all overwhelmingly vote against the health care bill.

As Alice is disillusioned an packing to leave it is revealed that Rep Howard has betrayed the party by tacking the health care bill to the moon-base bill. Alice & her friends will be covered by insurance because the other congress folk do not really read the bills that are approved. Alice returns to Rep Howard and they have a wedding where Keyshawn marries the security guard Rakeesha & Alice marries Rep Howard , all officiated by Reverend Norm.

Cast

Production

Red Wagon Productions' Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher first developed the property, hiring Kristin Gore (daughter of Al Gore) to adapt the screenplay based on her 2004 novel ''Sammy's Hill''. In 2008, Russell was named the director of the film, then titled ''Nailed''. Russell, Wick, and Fisher were reportedly promised a budget of $26 million by Capitol Films, a production company led by then-Hollywood newcomer David Bergstein. Principal photography began in April 2008, in Columbia, South Carolina. That month, James Caan dropped out of the film, after "creative differences" over his character's death scene. Production was shut down frequently—as many as 14 times—for nonpayment of the cast and crew, leading to walk-outs by stars Biel and Gyllenhaal as well as several crew members. Bergstein attributed the film's financial woes to the 2008 financial collapse, but the filmmakers believed they were being "intentionally squeezed." In a dispute over control of the film, and to prevent the possibility of Capitol releasing an unpolished version of the film, Wick and Fisher decided to withhold film negatives and postpone shooting the crucial sequence in which Biel's character is injured with a nail gun until the final day of filming. As a result of one of the unions pulling support for the film with only two days left to shoot, the sequence was not shot and the film was left incomplete.

In early 2010, the film's financier, Ronald Tutor, who controlled the film's rights along with Bergstein, paid millions of dollars to get several films, including ''Nailed'', out of a foreclosure action. Bergstein hired an editor to assemble a cut of the film that was shown to Russell when he was asked to return and film reshoots. Russell and Tutor were unable to strike a deal and Russell permanently left the production in July. According to ''The Hollywood Reporter'', Russell's primary grievance was Wick and Fisher being pushed to accept 50% pay cuts. The producers, who also left the film, called the requested concessions "unfair, unprofessional and detrimental to the movie." Russell said of quitting the film: "This has been a painful process for me. The multiple production delays and stoppages, which were caused by David Bergstein and preceded Ron Tutor's direct involvement with me, have now spanned two years, and the circumstances under which the film would now be completed are much different on several fundamental levels than when we embarked several years ago. I, unfortunately, am no longer involved in the project and cannot call it 'my' film. I wish Ron Tutor well." Contractual agreements required Biel and Tracy Morgan to film reshoots, which did not involve Russell.

Capitol Films went bankrupt in 2010 and the property was purchased in 2014 by independent distributor Millennium Entertainment for an undisclosed sum. Retitled ''Accidental Love'', a cut was assembled under producer Kia Jam, a former executive with Capitol, who said, "People are expecting to see a broken film, and it's not. We tried very much to be respectful of the creative forces behind it." With the film set to be released, Russell negotiated with the Directors Guild of America to remove his name from the film; he is credited for his roles as director and co-writer as "Stephen Greene," an alternative to the former official pseudonym, Alan Smithee, used by directors wishing to disown a film.

Release

In March 2011, an unfinished cut of the film was screened in Los Angeles. The film was released on VOD on February 10, 2015. The film was released in a limited release on March 20, 2015, bringing in a low gross of $4,500. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United States on April 28, 2015.

Following a home video release by Mongrel Media in Canada, A.A. Dowd, film critic with '' The A.V. Club'', accused the company of quoting his review out of context, making a negative film review look like a positive one. In response to the accusation, Mongrel Media issued an apology and claimed they would remove the quote from further prints of the DVD.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 8% based on 36 reviews, with an average rating of 3.7/10. The site's consensus states: "Cobbling together an unfinished satire on the healthcare system and contorting it into a dopey romance, ''Accidental Love'' is a cynical repurposing of unrealized potential." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 20 out of 100, based on reviews from 13 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

A.A. Dowd of '' The A.V. Club'' wrote: "To be fair to whoever refashioned ''Accidental Love'' from the abandoned scraps of ''Nailed'', there’s little reason to believe that the ideal, untroubled version of the material would have been a comedic masterstroke."

Richard Roeper of the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' wrote: "The satire is broad and forced and unfunny, there’s no cadence to the setups and visual punch lines, and the likable cast is hopelessly lost. Some disasters should remain forgotten."

References

External links

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{{David O. Russell

2015 films
2015 romantic comedy films
2010s English-language films
2010s political films
2010s satirical films
American romantic comedy films
American political satire films
Films based on American novels
Films directed by David O. Russell
Films scored by John Swihart
Films set in Indiana
Films set in Washington, D.C.
Films shot in South Carolina
2010s American films