Review #59
Universal, 2003
Mov No. 40173
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Directed by: Richard Curtis
Staring: Hugh Grant, Bill Nighy, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson, Keira Knightley (and many more)
Oscars: 0 nominations (2 Golden Globe nominations)
AFI 100 years, 100 _____ tributes:
Runtime: 2h 15min
Best quote: "When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love." - Hugh Grant (voice over)
It is Christmas time in merry ol' England, and a dozen or so people are all love stricken.
The newly elected British Prime Minister (Hugh Grant) is unmarried, and people make fun of this fact often. Daniel (Liam Neeson) just lost his wife. His son, Sam (Thomas Sangster), has a special someone who doesn't know he exists. Natalie (Martine McCutcheon) is attracted to the P.M. and doesn't know it. Meanwhile Jamie (Colin Firth) likes his Portuguese maid, Aurelia (Lucina Moniz), and Karen (Emma Thomspon), and her husband, Harry (Alan Rickman), are having marital troubles. There are still a few more relationships after this!
It is hard to describe each relationship as it goes about it courtings and what-not, but fully half of the stories could have been made into their own picture. Love, Actually tells many stories and is heavy on the ones that are the least interesting. Each relationship gets about 10 minuets here and there, and so of them could have been expanded or deleted.
Love, Actually is a very funny and witty British comedy, and is excelent to see for the Cristmas season. Hugh Grant steals the show as the British P.M., and the cute Thomas Sangster (Hugh Grant's cousin) is darling chsing the girl of his dreams, learning to play the drums in such a short period of time.
Love, Actually is the perfect holiday film to see as it is chariming and witty and will get you into the Christmas spirit a tad early this year.
As a side note, the opening monologue about 9/11 was well done and very touching.
Love Actually is a sweet and tender romantic comedy. It has many different stories which all come together in the end. It is destined to become a christmas classic along the lines of It's a Wonderful Life. Just wait and see.
Updated 27-12-04
Plot: 
The plot is hard to follow as there are so many different characters to keep track of, but most them any way have interesting stories behind them anyway - and the story wraps up quite nicely in the end.
Visual Effects:
Sound:
The Christmas songs are well placed and help make the film, especially the rendition of "All I want for Christmas" near the end of the film.
Character Development:
There is little character development because each character has limited time on screen - this is an ensamble cast - and every cahracter in the film had one scene deleted at the that. Still, the story wraps up nicely at the end with almost every character having something to do with the another. Many characters end up with the person they were supposed to. After all, it is a romantic comedy, isn't it?
Atmosphere:
This is an excelent film and it will get you from the opening "9/11" monologue.
Realism:
Warren�s Rating:
8.57/10Is the movie worth your time to watch?
11-11-03
