If you're going to have your emotional responses shunted around like a gear stick, it might as well be by someone who writes dialogue as funny as Curtis does.
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
Even Curtis's few missteps make relative sense in his otherwise smart and bulging valentine to the world... in an inspired movie with just so much to love, actually.
I walked into the theater exhausted and pissed off. I left grinning like an imbecile.
Bill Nighy steals the show whenever on the screen with his rock star cynicism, I’m-so-bored demeanor and funny, off-color dialogue
When he isn't overreaching for absurdity, Curtis can write bouncy patter, but each character gets about 60 seconds before the movie jumps deck to the next love-seeker and the next moony pratfall.
There are times when all of this goodwill feels a tad forced and artificial, but, on balance, Love Actually is appealing and genial with plenty of solid laughs, and worthy of a recommendation for those who appreciate this kind of thing.
I smiled throughout, charmed by the stories’ feel-good rhythms and the sense of something lovely and quixotic lurking just around the corner.
All these characters and story threads feel sketchy and incomplete, as if Curtis had written four or five dead-end drafts on one theme, then decided to try combining them all.
With Love Actually, first-time director Richard Curtis has given adult moviegoers a joyous Holiday treat.
like a compilation 'Best of' hits album targeted at Christmas shoppers
By cramming eight different stories into his film, [Curtis] has guaranteed that none of them will get enough time to fully develop.
Thank you Universal for the perfect holiday gift, Love Actually -- one hilarious poem of a picture to the joy of love!
A roundly entertaining romantic comedy, Love Actually is still nearly as cloying as it is funny.
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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