At least eight different, intertwining tales of love at Christmastime in London come together in Love Actually.
The different stories –
- Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) is an aging rock star looking to stage a comeback with a new Christmas album with the help of his manager, Joe (Gregor Fisher).
- Juliet (Keira Knightley) marries Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) but learns that Peter’s best friend, Mark (Andrew Lincoln) is in love with her.
- A writer, Jamie (Colin Firth) finds his girlfriend sleeping with his brother and travels to a remote French cottage where he falls in love with the Portuguese cleaning lady, Aurélia (Lúcia Moniz), who doesn’t speak English.
- Harry (Alan Rickman) finds himself attracted to his secretary, Mia (Heike Makatsch), and his wife, Karen (Emma Thompson) begins to suspect something when she finds a gift for her.
- David (Hugh Grant), the new Prime Minister, falls for Natalie (Martine McCutcheon), a member of his household staff.
- Daniel (Liam Neeson) and his stepson, Sam (Thomas Sangster), mourn the loss of their wife and mother. Sam has also fallen for his American classmate and Daniel decides to help him win her over.
- Sarah (Laura Linney) has had a crush on a coworker, Karl (Rodrigo Santoro), for years but their relationship is constantly interrupted by calls from her mentally ill brother.
- Unlucky in love in London, Colin (Kris Marshall) decides to travel to America to find a girl, or girls.
- John (Martin Freeman) and Judy (Joanna Page) meet while filming as body doubles for various sex scenes.
Wow, do you have all that? It’s not nearly as confusing as it sounds as each of the stories is short and all of them overlap in some way. Characters crop up in different stories and the golden thread of the film is love. Love Actually is surprisingly one of the best romantic comedies I’ve ever seen. Love Actually is incredibly charming, honest, and funny and it’s a Christmas movie to boot. In fact, it’s the only Christmas movie I can think of that has nudity, so that doesn’t hurt.
There is a lot to keep track of in Love Actually and some of the story lines play out better than others, but the film rarely feels like it is trying to pull in too much. The only real disappointment comes if your favorite story lines don’t wrap up as fully as others. The cast is so varied that even if you have an aversion to an actor, they likely aren’t on screen long enough to get under your skin. When I was reviewing Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, I noted that Keira Knightley bothered me in that film, but here she is pleasant.
I had seen Love Actually a few years ago and vaguely remembered a few of the characters and their stories, but the film felt fresh to me. I could see moving Love Actually into regular Christmastime movie rotation, but it’s also complex enough to have it be “new” every few years. Regardless, I know it’s past Christmas but let Love Actually into your heart and onto your screen when the seasons rolls around again next year.
I give it 4 “to me, you are perfect…”s out of 5.
PS – I could not have written this review without the help of Wikipedia.
Links:
Oops! Billy Mack is actually Bill Nighy and Gregor Fisher is his manager! It’s the tuther way round!! Great film and a family favourite that we watch a lot, not just at Christmas! 😀
Oopsies, fixed!
I could see watching this one any time
It never fails to make me laugh and cry, in equal measure! 😀
One of my absolute faves! Always puts a smile on my face! Love it 🙂
It’s a really good “feel good” type of movie
I watched this for the first time this year after a bunch of people pestered me over not having seen it. I have to say, it was fairly decent. I think your assessment of it is pretty spot on, Andy.
Yeah, my wife had been pestering me and I kept thinking it was that Jude Law/Jack Black/Kate Winslet/Cameron Diaz movie, The Holiday.
Love this film and watch it every Christmas – one of the best ensemble movies I’ve seen. Great write up!
I was pretty impressed when they kept adding characters to it but it never feels like its too much.
I have nominated you for the Blog of the Year 2012 award. You can check it out here: http://klling.wordpress.com/2012/12/29/blog-of-the-year-2012/
Kim
Thanks, Kim!
I have nominated you for the 2012 Blog of the Year Award. Check out my post at http://jmountswritteninblood.com/2012/12/29/another-award-now-i-know-god-is-testing-my-humility/ for all the details. Congrats!
Wow, thanks!
I’ve always wanted to watch this movie, but just never came around to it. Man, there is a lot going on, uh? I give credit to the director with piecing this all together. I’m going to be a little honest, I’m going to have a hard time seeing Andrew Lincoln with his real accent. That and not seeing a walker nearby. LOL
You are almost at 300! Keep it up…you got this!
It is weird to see him in anything else.
Woo! Thanks!
I enjoy this one on occasion but prefer Notting Hill, have you seen it? It doesn’t juggle a large cast or anything, but I think it is funnier.
I’m not sure… I’ll check it out sometime. That’s Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant, right?
Yeah it is. Richard Curtis wrote both of them.
I see its available on Netflix so thanks to your review I’ll add it to my list along with Bait. With so many stories it looked like a long review to write. Thanks for taking the trouble.
Hope you enjoy it!
One of the better ‘rom coms’ I’ve seen. Does pretty well to keep the multiple plot threads balanced and so you are interested in most of them.
I love Bill Nighy in this film. He is terrific! Also, the Laura Linney storyline is very touching.
This movie really has wonderful things to say about love in its various forms, doesn’t it?
Laura Linney doesn’t get enough screen time. I love her.
Love Actually is one of our Xmas movie traditions. This film is so sweet.
Billy Mack + Joe = ❤
i have an unfair bias against these kinds of movies in which several different stories are all connected. i’m getting tired of it, and in a way it seems like someone was either too lazy or not talented enough to write a full screenplay. i know that’s a little unreasonable, but that’s how i feel.
however, transfer that to fiction, and i’ll say that short stories are excellent.
It’s true that few/none of the stories would work on their own for a full-length movie, but the way they are presented works pretty well.
I much prefer short stories, usually.
Great Christmas movie – could watch it each year around this time. Nice review.
Nice review. One of my must-see movies every year at Christmas.
You should pair it with a nice viewing of Christmas Vacation 😀
Hahaha. No thanks 😉
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