“Love Hurts” offers an offbeat narrative that pairs a Valentine’s motif with brisk, hard-hitting action. The film introduces Marvin Gable—a man whose former career in covert violence now sits incongruously behind a desk in a modest real estate office. His transformation (which might remind one of a jaded actor switching roles mid-performance) hints at the societal obsession with reinvention and the price paid for escaping a violent past.

Set against the unassuming streets of Milwaukee, the film uses the city’s mundane suburban charm as a foil for buried transgressions. Here, everyday life carries an undercurrent of guilt and secrecy, reminiscent of historical moments when communities masked deeper, unresolved conflicts beneath a veneer of normality.

Marvin’s dual existence—a peaceful property consultant by day and a man haunted by memories of deadly assignments by night—serves as a metaphor for the masks individuals wear to hide inner turmoil.