Works for me

Rating: 7/10 (4 December 2003)

*** spoiler alert ***
is an engaging, feel-good concatenation of nearly a dozen love stories that climax at Christmas. It's message, spoken over the title credits by Hugh Grant, is probably true: love is ubiquitous. The device of using the arrivals gate at Heathrow to drive home this fact is at once kitschy and poignant. There are so many odes to hate, violence, war, and conflict in movies that this clever, fun, and upbeat movie will find difficulty gaining footing in a desolate filmscape.
It is a challenge to review this movie because so many aspects of love are explored. Unrequited love. Love's first bloom. Love on the rocks. Love ended prematurely. Fraternal love. Love's sacrifice. Love bridging language. Love bridging class. Ugly duckling finds love. They don't all work, but most do. And in many there is a rich and economically communicated subtext about how these people succeed in love.
Things that work especially well: Laura Linney caring for her mentally ill brother. Bill Nighy's irreverent, unapologetic rock-and-roller. Emma Thompson and Allan Rickman's brinksmanship with adultery. The hurtfulness of the Martine McCutcheon chubby jokes.
Things that don't work: Rowan Atkinson (not here, not like this). Billy Bob's wooden, implausible American President. Denise Richards (waste). Hugh Grant's trite rebuff of the US. Rodrigo Santoro saying virtually nothing to stir love in anybody.
Love can be painful, limiting, paralyzing--and it is in this film--but every character in it doggedly pursues it anyway. It's the only thing worth caring about. It's a good thing it's so abundant. Discuss amongst yourselves.