The Face of Love delivers possibly the worst movie line of 2014

THE Face of Love: Annette Bening gets the worst of the script, but that’s not to say Ed Harris doesn’t have to utter a howler or two of his own.

Ed Harris and Annette Bening in a Scene from Face of Love. Rialto Films.

IF movies could blush from sheer embarrassment, then The Face of Love would be glowing with one rosy-red frame after another.

It is a strangely stilted, supremely silly concoction about discovering a first love the second time around.

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Ed Harris and Annette Bening in a scene from<i> Face of Love</i>.

Annette Bening plays Nikki, a with-it kind of widow who loses it in a loopy kind of way when she spies Tom (Ed Harris), a fellow who is the dead-spit of her late husband.

After a little stalking and a lot of talking, the pair becomes an item. From here, the awkwardness just keeps on coming in waves of ever-increasing size.

Nikki gets herself in a right state about what will happen when her family and friends find out she’s dating the living clone of her dearly departed spouse.

Widow Nikki meets Tom, a man who looks just like her late husband, in the film.

Some harebrained attempts are made by Nikki to cover her tracks and possibly even keep the twisted tryst a secret.

As for Tom, an oh-so-casual art teacher, he’s content to interpret the escalating weirdness of his new girlfriend as a personality wrinkle that will soon iron itself out.

A clearly flummoxed Bening gets the worst of a script that fails to click as either heartfelt drama or semi-unintentional comedy. A suspiciously sedate Robin Williams, playing a lonely neighbour with a crush on Nikki, comes a close second.

Which is not to say Harris doesn’t have to utter a howler or two of his own.

When he tells Bening he “could take a bath in the way you look at me,” you just might have heard the worst line of 2014.

The Face of Love (M)

Director: Arie Posin (The Chumscrubber)

Starring: Annette Bening, Ed Harris, Robin Williams, Amy Brenneman

Verdict: One-and-a-half stars. A real doppel-clanger

Better days ... Nicole Kidman, left, Jeff Bridges, Annette Bening and Amy Adams pose for a group picture at the 30th Academy Awards Nominees Luncheon in 2011.

Originally published as The Face of Love delivers possibly the worst movie line of 2014