Love Actually DVD, 2003

An unashamedly feelgood, multi-character romcom distinguished by stand-out performances by Bill Nighy and Emma Thompson.

Eight stories involving the love lives of more than a dozen characters are brought together over one Christmas and climax on Christmas Eve; from the recent widower Daniel (Liam Neeson), the failing marriage of Karen (Emma Thompson) and Harry (Alan Rickman), the ageing rocker (Bill Nighy) who just wants to get paid (and laid if possible), through to the Prime Minister (Hugh Grant) falling for a member of Number 10's staff (Martine McCutcheon).

I greatly enjoyed Love Actually. Reading some of the other reviews which attacked it with vigor, I was a little disgusted. I liked the prologue, albeit the tragedy of ... more >

I greatly enjoyed Love Actually. Reading some of the other reviews which attacked it with vigor, I was a little disgusted. I liked the prologue, albeit the tragedy of 9/11 was a horrendous event but I don't believe they used it in the wrong way, quite the contrary, I found the prologue to be a great way to enter into the movie. The movie was a great blend of romance and comedy and though many movies of that genre (romantic-comedy) are labeled chick flicks I would say this movie is a good watch for anybody. I think every actor/actress played their role well and although I may have changed the story here and there it was what it was and it was great. The movie was exceptionally endearing and a great laugh. I think anybody watching this movie will like, if not love, it. < less

I really liked Love Actually. It made me laugh. I liked it when Bill Nighy had to keep on singing his song over and over again. It was funny when Hugh Grant did a danc... more >

I really liked Love Actually. It made me laugh. I liked it when Bill Nighy had to keep on singing his song over and over again. It was funny when Hugh Grant did a dance all on his own. < less

The commercial success of Love Actually is a depressing phenomenon indeed. Rarely has a film been so manipulative: critics pounced on the vile use of the victims of 9/... more >

The commercial success of Love Actually is a depressing phenomenon indeed. Rarely has a film been so manipulative: critics pounced on the vile use of the victims of 9/11 in the prologue (the deaths of thousands of innocent citizens is not an appropriate motif to include in a film that deals with deep emotion in some of the most banal manners imaginable), but the use of a mother’s death to try and engender audience empathy in the plight of a lovesick infant is almost as jarring. Unfortunately for director Richard Curtis, the child is played by Thomas Sangster, one of the least appealing child actors in recent memory, and not even the loss of a parent can make one sympathise with this simpering brat.

Once upon a time, Curtis was a very talented writer, who helped Blackadder and Mr. Bean become two of the most unusual and innovative sitcoms of the last few decades. Since the astonishing success of Four Weddings and a Funeral, however, the writer has grown lazier with ea ch film, and Love Actually throws in all the perennial rib-ticklers and soppy clichés from his earlier films (mad declarations of love, Hugh Grant smirking, people saying 'f**k' a lot) without bothering to make any of his characters remotely lovable or sympathetic.

Some of the actors are talented enough to shake of the horrors of the script and emerge as vaguely entertaining; Bill Nighy gets the only laugh of the film at the expense of Ant and Dec, and he is always watchable (though his BAFTA was a compliment too far), whilst Emma Thompson is very good as a cuckolded wife. Otherwise the cast mug and gurn their ways through poorly-written roles (Kris Marshall as a sex-mad goof is particularly irksome).

What irritates most about Love Actually is the sense of what might have been. As awful as most of the cast are in this picture, they have (usually) impressed in other films, and the interweaving storylines would have been engaging had they been handled by a director skilled in ensemble pieces (Robert Altman’s version of Love Actually would have been a pleasure indeed!) As it stands, Love Actually depicts a superficial love that exists only in the mind of Curtis (proposals of marriage occur within days of the start relationships in this sickening world). The blurb above states that this film proves 'the Brits can do sugary schmaltz just as well as the Americans'. Swap 'well' for 'vomit-inducingly' and they have a point. < less

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