Love Actually

Universal Pictures, 2004. Richard Curtis, writer/director. Actors: Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Liam Neeson, and a host of other actors whom I do not know by name but have appeared in various other fillums (I just listed the ones that I know)

oh yeah! and Kiera Knightly . . . wow! (interesting bit of personal Verble-Trivia: when my wife and I were watching Pirates of the Carribean, we had a bet as to whether the lead actress was Wynona Ryder or not . . . turned out to be Kiera Knightly and I won the bet, thankyouverymuch!)

OK, so, about the movie: it has moments of almost-brilliance, but dulled by occasional forays into things that simply aren't funny, or rather, those things that make you feel "not very right" - such as Liam Neeson, the stepdad of an 8 year old boy who just lost his mother. Directly after the funeral they're making jokes about this kid's love life! (and the writer tried to write it off by having the kid give a token line about how he "should" feel for his mom, and even though they made it seem like a long protracted illness that prepared everyone for the eventual demise, it STILL doesn't quite sit well with me, sorry.)

That, and the love of the American chick for some guy in the office - he's got almost NO lines, so you can't really feel anything for him, and even though through dialogue they've known each other apparently for years, it still comes across as stilted - especially with her subplot of not being able to have a complete love life because she's tied to some guy in a mental hospital (possibly her brother?) who calls her 24-7 and occasionally has tirades where he swings wild punches at people.

Odd.

The Hugh Grant parts are typical Hugh Grant, with him being the single Prime Minister of England, and of course the part where he pisses off the US President (Billy Bob Thornton, of all people!) was wonderful, but only because it was SUCH wish fulfillment!!! Other than that, his love interest is the object of cheap "chubbygirl" jokes, when she's not even THAT big. I hate that crap.

On the plus side, there are some touching moments - Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson - man, can that crazy lady pull off a tear jerking pose! You can simply FEEL the loneliness, and I don't know if it's her or the camera angle or what - but that was good.

BEST scene of the movie - and you have to watch it to get it - the Best Man's video of the wedding. Now that was classic. OK - I'll spoil it for you: the wife comes to the Best Man (Best Friend)'s flat to get the video, and she starts right off by admitting that she knows he never seemed to really like her, but let's just try to get along (and to tell you the truth, up until this scene you really get the sense that this guy is not only feeling like this girl stole his best friend, but you also begin to suspect that he has more than simply "friendship" feelings for his friend, if ya knowwhatImean!)

OK, so then she finds the video of the wedding, pops it in the VCR, starts watching, and after awhile she begins to notice that he has edited the tape . . . until they are nothing but shots/closeups of HER!

That was, IMHO, very well done.

And in all honesty, that's about it for Love Actually. Some nice montages - great stuff with one guy going off to America to score chicks with his British accent, and it wouldn't be so funny if it weren't so true!

Too many plot lines to make into a totally convincing movie, probably better as a novel, but generally entertaining. If you don't expect overly much you won't be disappointed.

TTFN

VG