It's comfort food for the holidays, easily digested and passed before the new year sets in and you resolve to swear off such rich and unhealthy edibles as this.
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
The creators of Love Actually clearly believe that if a movie has enough charm, it doesn't need depth. In the case of Love Actually, they are absolutely right.
Love Actually is just about impossible to dislike, even if you really, really want to.
Love Actually is as stuffed with goodies as the Christmas stockings for those at the very top of Santa's 'nice' list -- and it is just as entertaining, too.
Though it would be dishonest to call this an unqualified success, it would be churlish not to tip the hat to Love Actually's genuine charm.
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.
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.
Like watching a dozen or so ultra-cute mini-movies simultaneously. Unfortunately, almost all of them are bad.
Love Actually is to the romantic-comedy genre what a Sherman tank is to sport- utility vehicles.
A warm, benevolent comedy whose characters gradually become your dear friends.
It's going to make a lot of holiday romantics feel very, very good; watching it, I felt cozy and charmed myself.
Individually, the tales wouldn't stand up as short stories. Together, they make for sporadically amusing, ultimately wearying viewing.
A bunch of cutesy characters saying cutesy things... that ultimately, well, turn out cutesy and romantic.
So overstuffed with good things and wrapped in such a cheerful package that it’s hard to resist.
Very funny, effortlessly moving, stylishly made, impeccably acted by a mind-bogglingly great cast -- and, yes, wholly satisfying.
There are absolutely no surprises in any of the increasingly choppy vignettes.
Feel-good schmaltz creeps into every nook and cranny of writer/director Richard Curtis’s Love Actually.
Latest News for Love Actually
September 07, 2009:
Five Favourite Films with Richard Curtis
Richard Curtis has a plan. "What I've decided is to choose recent films," he explains to RT. "I do think that often people get stuck in always saying the five greatest films of... More...
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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