[Picture of projector]

Laramie Movie Scope:
Love Actually

A holiday treat stuffed with characters

[Strip of film rule]
by Robert Roten, Film Critic
[Strip of film rule]

November 26, 2003 -- “Love Actually” is a romantic comedy that is bursting at the seams with characters, rich stories and romance. It tries to cover all aspects of love and succeeds far better than you would expect it to.

First-time director Richard Curtis, who has written numerous screenplays, including “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” has created a romantic comedy with more storylines and characters than any three typical romantic comedies, yet he manages to juggle all this complexity quite handily. The story follows eight couples in a variety of relationships.

There are cheating husbands and wives, a sort of a gay relationship, puppy love, a relationship which suffers from a conflict between romantic love and family love, love between a bosses and workers, a man who falls in love with his best friend's bride and love on the rebound. The film stars Hugh Grant as a very unlikely prime minister of England, along with Billy Bob Thornton as an equally unlikely President of the United States. Laura Linney (“You Can Count On Me”) stars as Sarah, a woman who has fallen for a fellow worker in an office headed by Harry (played by Alan Rickman of “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”). Emma Thompson of “Primary Colors” plays Harry's wife, who also happens to be the Prime Minister's sister. She also happens to be a friend of Daniel (Liam Neeson of “K-19: The Widowmaker”) who is getting over the death of his wife. Daniel's son, Sam (Thomas Sangster) has fallen in love with a beautiful and talented girl in his grade school. He fears she is unattainable. The Prime Minister has fallen for one of his employees, Natalie (played by singer Martine McCutcheon). The recently cuckolded Jaime (Colin Firth of “What a Girl Wants”) has fallen for his Portuguese housekeeper, Aurelia (Lucia Moniz). Mark (Andrew Lincoln of “Human Traffic”) falls in love with Juliet (Keira Knightley of “Bend it Like Beckham”), who is unattainable. Colin Frissell (Kris Marshall of “The Four Feathers”) despairs of finding love in England, so he flies to Wisconsin looking for it.

The stories cover the range of love's emotions, from its power to rejuvenate to its power to cause great pain. The story takes place around Christmas, and it deals with how families gather for Christmas and how some people sometimes get left out of these gatherings. One telling bit of dialogue demonstrates this: Billy, a washed up rock star, being interviewed on the radio says, “Christmas is for people with someone they love in their lives.” The D.J., Michael, replies, “And that's not you?” Billy affirms with disarming candor, “That's not me, Michael, when I was young and successful, I was greedy and foolish and now I'm left with no one, wrinkled and alone.” Others in the film are also on the doorstep of Christmas looking in. Some find what they are looking for, some don't.

The film is reminiscent of “Four Weddings and a Funeral” in that it explores the bitterness as well as the sweetness of love's banquet. Also there is, in fact, a wedding and a funeral in it. The film is complex and multi layered. There are some wonderful performances by Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson, Bill Nighy (the washed-up rock star), Thomas Sangster (the love-struck kid), Laura Linney (one of the few Americans in the film) and Martine McCutcheon. Liam Neeson, not known as a comic actor, does better than expected here. Hugh Grant, while not fitting the role of Prime Minister at all, is as charming as ever. Rowan Atkinson (“Mr. Bean”) has a role that looks like it was written especially for him. He's not quite as obnoxious as he was in “Bean.” He plays his famous bumbling Bean-like character in a couple of scenes. The second scene, in an airport, has an almost magical quality about it. This is a movie which has something in it for everyone. Everyone with a heart, that is. It is a perfect film for the holidays (but not a perfect family film since it does feature partial nudity). It rates an A.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in video and/or DVD format, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

[Strip of film rule]
Copyright © 2003 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.
[Strip of film rule]
 
Back to the Laramie Movie Scope index.
   
[Rule made of Seventh Seal sillouettes]

Robert Roten can be reached via e-mail at my last name at lariat dot org. [Mailer button: image of letter and envelope]

(If you e-mail me with a question about this or any other movie or review, please mention the name of the movie you are asking the question about, otherwise I may have no way of knowing which film you are referring to)