eric262003 Due to his stature as the icon for British culture, complete with with aristocratic accents, and an immaculate view of upper-class London, writer/director Richard Curtis truly has the substance factor in his favour. However in his holiday season themed film "Love Actually", he throws all that posh out the window in resorts to sentimental gush, saccharine music and indecorous humour. This is a far cry from "Four Weddings and a Funeral".It's great that Curtis called up his partner in crime Hugh Grant to be one of the stars in "Love Actually", but he's been rendered down to a small supporting role and is lost in the crowd to the over-stacked ensemble cast. Grant plays the part of David, who's been a newly elected British Prime Minister, his comical moments truly usurps the other who's who in this ultra-British cast that includes Emma Thompson, Bill Nighy and Alan Rickman. In his witty and subtle demeanour, Grant has become a stapled icon in the romantic comedy genre and can generate a lot of humourous moments with his twitches and in this instant, the shake of his tush.A character break into dance mode has become common in romantic comedies, but Grant conveys a new and eccentric twist to what is an awkward predicament. When he was dancing to The Pointer Sisters' "Jump (For My Love)" we can see how embarrassed he his doing it, but his sportsmanship is something we can applaud to. With all these intertwining subplots, the one that's barely given screen time involves around Prime Minister David as he's mitten over his ravishing assistant Natalie (Martine McCutcheon). The chemistry between the sophisticated Prime Minister and the slightly lower class help is the one that sparked my interest the most. McCutcheon even adds an original twist to her character by breaking the cliche of the cute newly in love assistant by unceremoniously swearing at her superior.The opening scenes centres around the week before the holiday season as the ever-present variation of a Mod rock song "Love is All Around" with a hint of holiday cheer is rubbed into our faces. Yes the British love their pop music and Curtis is not ashamed to exploit that to us. He did a similar thing in "Four Wedding and Funeral" with "Bye Bye Baby" by the Bay City Rollers. This eye-roller sets the tone of many absurd things to come.With a myriad of romantic subplots, they could all stretch to half an hour segments before we see them one more time. Sadly, not all of them were not given enough time and could've easily been edited out. One example would be the body doubles John and Judy (Martin Freeman and Johanna Page) who are dating quietly while giving fake orgies on the movie sets. Or the story involving a hopeless romantic named Colin (Kris Marshall) who travels to America to use his British accent to woo hot women, which to me felt like an overlong coke commercial. Still most of the stories work due to the talent pool and the good vibes it brings to the story.Liam Neeson is wonderful as a widowed man named Daniel who's 11 year old stepson Sam (Thomas Sangster) seeks his first crush, an American girl named Joanna (Olivia Olson). Sangster conveys a daring and dashing presence of energy in his character, but his drive feels too young and forced for his age. However, his comic skills when he meets his dreamboat for the first time is flawless.Colin Firth plays a sympathetic note here as Jamie who after feeling betrayed by his girlfriend (Sienna Guillory) hides out to his French cottage and gets love-struck by his Portuguese maid Aurelia (Lucia Moniz) though they can't speak each other's language, the magic comes from the fact that the language of love bears no boundaries. Moniz embodies a keen sense of intelligence and seductiveness to her character. Both Moniz and McCutcheon are more interesting performers than the more established ones here. Emma Thompson's housewife Karen believes that her husband Harry (Alan Rickman) is secretly having an affair with his sultry receptionist, Mia (Heike Makatsch). Thompson and Rickman's talents are badly wasted here and their cliched ways proves the point here. The love between each other makes it hard to believe that Harry is a cheater and when Karen who was expecting an expensive necklace from Harry as a Christmas gift only to realize that the gift was not for her (her's was a Joni Mitchell CD) we get the music score running with Mitchell's weary version of "Both Sides Now". The song was nice I felt bad for Karen, but it still was drained out.Laura Linney plays Sarah, who works at Harry's company and is attracted to her co-worker Karl (Rodrigo Santoro), but the relationship is set back due to her mentally ill brother, Michael (Michael Fitzgerald). Sure Curtis like to include somber pieces to his agenda, but the thing that transpire in this subplot results in strange and jarring moments. Bill Nighy has equal comical moments as Grant playing a has-been rock star knows his best years are behind him, but still has some optimism that his awful holiday song might be the keys to comeback and promotes this song at a gala event hosted by Sir Elton John. While he and his partner Joe (Gregor Fisher) spend the holidays inebriated and watching porn.Yes the British strive to get a #1 single has been a tradition since the 1960's which has a community feeling in the UK than it does in America. Sure the cost of oneness is expensive, especially having to deal with saccharine music.

tdurkin-1 The only reason I gave this five stars was because the A-list of actors. The script was a mish-mash of poorly conceived plots painfully forced together in artificial contrivance with virtually no actual interplay among the plots. I used to be a script analyst in Hollywood. I never would have passed this amateurish attempt at a screenplay. I guess if you like the actors and aren't bothered by unsophisticated, vaguely plotted, sappy romantic comedy, you might enjoy this movie. I didn't.

Antonius Block What a charming movie this is. It's not perfect or anything, and probably gets a little too syrupy towards the end, but it's romantic, funny, and the star-studded cast is outstanding. Weaving through so many story lines could have left the viewer confused and unsatisfied with any of them, but director Richard Curtis pulls the right strings and keeps us entertained from beginning to end. There are just so many wonderful scenes and lines. Andrew Lincoln's card scene with Keira Knightley. Colin Firth watching Lúcia Moniz walk out of his life, and then later both of them learning each other's language. Thomas Sangster, the little boy, talking to Liam Neeson about the "total agony of being in love". Hugh Grant the Prime Minister going door to door to find the sweet and sometimes foul- mouthed Martine McCutcheon. And on and on.The movie is filled with all those little moments we can identify with – secret longings, flirtation, and first kisses – but also those that are bittersweet, and those that disappoint us. The overall theme of the movie, that "love actually is all around", even though we often focus on the incidents of hate in the world, is inspiring. The shots in London are gorgeous, and the comic relief provided by the aging rocker Bill Nighy is funny. It is a feel- good movie and bound to be criticized, but it's OK to feel good once in awhile :), and this is certainly one of the better done romantic comedies.

Dave This romantic comedy-drama film is set in November and December, mostly in London. It follows many interconnected people. The acting is good, but the tone is too sentimental and unrealistically optimistic.This film crams in too many stories, which are incomplete and don't have enough context and backstories. Some of the stories are ridiculously unrealistic. One involves a poor simpleton who can't get laid. He goes to Wisconsin, where hot girls throw themselves at him. A character in another strand is a Portuguese housekeeper who lives in France with her family, yet can't speak any French.