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Love Actually (2003)
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Reviews Counted:180
Fresh:114
Rotten:66
Average Rating:6.4/10
Consensus: A sugary tale overstuffed with too many stories. Still, the cast charms.
Theatrical Release:Nov 7, 2003 Wide
Box Office: $59,365,105
Synopsis: General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed – but I don’t see that – seems to me that love is everywhere. Igniting laughter, wreaking havoc, breaking... General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed – but I don’t see that – seems to me that love is everywhere. Igniting laughter, wreaking havoc, breaking hearts, daring commitments, forcing choices, catapulting spirits, forging inroads, creating risks—ecstatic, exciting, unexpected, unwelcome, inconvenient, inexplicable, inelegant, unequalled. Love actually is all around. From the new bachelor Prime Minister (HUGH GRANT) instantly falling in love with a refreshingly real member of the staff (MARTINE McCUTCHEON) moments after entering 10 Downing Street… To a writer (COLIN FIRTH) escaping to the south of France to nurse his re-broken heart who finds love in a lake… From a comfortably married woman (EMMA THOMPSON) suspecting that her husband (ALAN RICKMAN) is slipping away… To a new bride (KEIRA KNIGHTLEY) mistaking the distance of her husband’s best friend for something it’s not… From a schoolboy seeking to win the attention of the most unattainable girl in school… To a widowed stepfather (LIAM NEESON) trying to connect with a son he suddenly barely knows… From a lovelorn junior manager (LAURA LINNEY) seizing a chance with her long-tended, unspoken office crush… To an aging “seen it all, remember very little of it” rock star (BILL NIGHY) jonesing for an end-of-career comeback in his own uncompromising way… Love, the equal-opportunity mischief-maker, is causing chaos for all. These London lives and loves collide, mingle and climax on Christmas Eve—again and again and again—with romantic, hilarious and bittersweet consequences for anyone lucky (or unlucky) enough to be under love’s spell. Acclaimed screenwriter RICHARD CURTIS (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary) now steps behind the camera for his directorial debut on his latest project, Love Actually—the ultimate romantic comedy that weaves together a spectacular number of love affairs into one amazing story. Curtis is re-teamed with producers DUNCAN KENWORTHY and Working Title’s TIM BEVAN and ERIC FELLNER—the filmmakers responsible for some of the most popular looks at modern love in all its guises, including Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Bridget Jones’s Diary. The powerhouse cast brought together for this look at love and laughter also includes ROWAN ATKINSON, ANDREW LINCOLN, MARTIN FREEMAN, KRIS MARSHALL, THOMAS SANGSTER, JOANNA PAGE, LUCIA MONIZ, BILLY BOB THORNTON and many others. Joining Curtis and producers Kenworthy, Bevan and Fellner are an esteemed group of behind-the-camera talent, including director of photography MICHAEL COULTER, B.S.C. (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Sense and Sensibility), production designer JIM CLAY (Captain Corelli’s Mandolin), editor NICK MOORE (Notting Hill, The Full Monty, About a Boy), costumer JOANNA JOHNSTON (The Sixth Sense, Contact), composer CRAIG ARMSTRONG (William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge!, The Quiet American) and casting director MARY SELWAY, C.D.G. (Notting Hill, Gosford Park). [More]
Starring: Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Keira Knightley
Starring: Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Keira Knightley, Laura Linney, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Bill Nighy, Rowan Atkinson, Martine McCutcheon, Shannon Elizabeth
Director: Richard Curtis
Director: Richard Curtis
Screenwriter: Richard Curtis
Producer: Duncan Kenworthy, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner
Composer: Craig Armstrong
Studio: Universal Pictures
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Reviews for Love Actually
At many points it's memorable, affecting and funny. But just as often it's lachrymose and in thrall to a breathtaking sentimentality that provides a cinematic sugar-rush.
If listing the cast of Love Actually is exhausting, it's even more tiring to watch it.
There are enough characters here to populate a dozen movies, but not enough imagination for one.
Writer-director Richard Curtis has jam-packed the story with too many characters and the whole thing borders on sickeningly sweet. But a fitfully funny screenplay and irreproachable cast keep you from suffering cinematic toothache.
Love Actually , Curtis' holiday-themed directing debut, abandons any pretext of sophistication for gloppy sentimentality, sugary pop songs and bawdy humor -- an approach that works about half the time.
The hollowness of the stories that lie behind each of these shameless heart-grabbers, laugh-getters and tear-jerkers becomes quickly apparent.
The performances are tokens of charm, attitude, Brit schtick, and the writer achieves the structure of confetti.
Screenwriter Richard Curtis tries to direct, puts too many eggs in his basket, and winds up with a very runny omelette.
Watching all this is like looking under the Christmas tree and finding everything you ever wanted (all those stars!) and everything you don't want (all that bathroom humor!) shoved into one carelessly wrapped package.
It's good for a few laughs, and its heart is in the right place. But I never believed a moment of it.
Love Actually, actually isn't half bad…the snafu is there's way too many stories going on at once...
This is definitely a case of a writer-turned-director that is too in love with his own script to make hard choices about what to keep and what to cut.
Latest News for Love Actually
September 07, 2009:
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April 02, 2009:
Five Favourite Films with Bill Nighy
There can be few actors better suited to starring in a film about the golden age of British rock and roll than Bill Nighy. No wonder, then, that he's front and centre as part of... More...
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