Love Actually movie review, Richard Curtis, Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Laura Linney, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Martine McCutcheon, January Jones, Martin Freeman, Rowan Atkinson, Andrew Lincoln, Bill Nighy, Chris Marshall, Keira Knightley, Billy Bob Thornton, Elisha Cuthbert, Denise Richards, Chiwetel Ejiofor. Review by Rob Blackwelder ©SPLICEDwire

'LOVE' STORIES SWEET BUT SLIPSHOD
A scene from 'Love Actually'
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"LOVE ACTUALLY"
**1/2 stars
128 minutes | Rated: R
LIMITED: Friday, November 7, 2003
WIDER: Friday, November 14, 2003
WIDE: Friday, November 26, 2003
Written & directed by Richard Curtis

Starring Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Laura Linney, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Martine McCutcheon, Martin Freeman, Joanna Page, Rowan Atkinson, Bill Nighy, Kris Marshall, Andrew Lincoln, Keira Knightley, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thomas Sangster, Lucia Moniz, Heike Makatsch, Rodrigo Santoro, Billy Bob Thornton, January Jones, Elisha Cuthbert, Shannon Elizabeth, Denise Richards, Claudia Schiffer



 COUCH CRITIQUE
   SMALL SCREEN SHRINKAGE: 5%
   WIDESCREEN: NOT NECESSARY

A keeper for those of a certain hopeful disposition, this movie will survive intact on video, just like the same company's "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "Notting Hill."

   VIDEO RELEASE: 04.27.2004



 OTHER REVIEWS/COMING SOON
 
  • Christmas movies
  • Hugh Grant
  • Emma Thompson
  • Alan Rickman
  • Laura Linney
  • Colin Firth
  • Liam Neeson
  • Rowan Atkinson
  • Bill Nighy
  • Keira Knightley
  • Billy Bob Thornton
  • Elisha Cuthbert
  • January Jones
  • Shannon Elizabeth
  • Denise Richards


  •  LINKS for this film
    Official site
    at movies.yahoo.com
    at Rotten Tomatoes
    at Internet Movie Database
    Watch the trailer (apple.com)
    Interwoven mini romantic comedies and dramas couldn't hold their own alone, but together are warm, winning

    By Rob Blackwelder

    "Love Actually" is terminally precious. Chirpy "classic" pop songs populate every third scene. It has no structure, just a jumble of interconnected stories -- some little dramas, some little comedies -- about love, flirtation, courtship and heartbreak, all of which will pay off just in time for a lovely London Christmas.

    It's the kind of pandering, populist movie in which Hugh Grant, playing the prime minister of England, joyously shakes his booty to The Pointer Sisters' "Jump (For My Love)" until he suddenly, to his great embarrassment, realizes he's being watched. It offers no real surprises except in how and when it reveals the inevitable six degrees of separation between each anecdotal yarn -- none of which has enough substance to ever stand on its own (nor would you want them to!).

    And yet, you'd have to be a terrible grump to not like "Love Actually" at least a little.

    Written and directed by Richard Curtis -- the driving force behind "Four Weddings and a Funeral," "Notting Hill" and "Bridget Jones's Diary" -- some of the movie's innocuous but maddeningly endearing tales are sweetly clever: One follows a miserable novelist and victim of infidelity (Colin Firth) to France, where through subtitles we come to realize that he and his Portuguese housekeeper (Lucia Moniz) understand each other better than they think as their falling in love is frustrated by lack of a common language.

    Others angle for poignant comedy: A new widower (Liam Neeson) coaches his overly articulate young stepson (Thomas Sangster) through his first crush. Meanwhile the best man from a first-reel wedding (Andrew Lincoln) secretly pines for his best friend's new bride (Keira Knightly).

    One mini-plot is a stand-up-and-cheer Cinderella story about that fumblingly charming, unmarried new PM (Grant) who falls for the bright-eyed girl (Martine McCutcheon) who brings him his tea. He also becomes a national hero by publicly humiliating a smarmy US president (Billy Bob Thornton) who is half Clinton (he makes a pass at the girl) and half Bush (he's an arrogant international bully). Neither actor has the slightest bit of credibility as a politician, but they're entertaining nonetheless.

    Some stories are tinged with tribulation (a stale but loving marriage is shaken by a provocative younger woman) and some are thin and played strictly for guffaws (a pathetic pick-up artist moves to America to score with ditzy blonde sexpots he hopes are suckers for an English accent).

    But while all 10 crisscrossing narratives have lots of heart and vivid performances (the cast also includes Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson and Laura Linney), all of them are transparent (if the tea girl tells the PM where she lives in the first act, where do you think he'll rush to against his better judgment in the last?) and many have plot holes that are hard to overlook (can't Curtis keep a handful of 15-minute stories coherent?). But all of these problems, which would surely sink any of these vignettes had they stood alone, become easy to forgive because the movie as a whole is so genuinely warm and winning.

    "Love Actually" is actually nothing more than a fluffy, synthetically holiday-themed two-plus hours of fairytales for grown-ups (the story of two movie stand-ins chatting their way into mutual adoration while doubling for a sex scene is one of the reasons for the "R" rating). But while it doesn't aim high enough to appeal to the mind, it does uses your heart for target practice and consistently hits its mark with Cupid-like precision.



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