Smug Actually

Rating: 4/10 (25 December 2018)

Sugar, syruppy, a contrived bawdy romantic comedy for Christmas with paper this characterisation an none of it ever rings true.
Set in London in the run up to Christmas, we see a range of characters all linked to each other in some way.
The newly elected Prime Minister (Hugh Grant) falls for his teal lady Natalie (Martine McCutcheon) and when the President of the USA fondles of her, he loses his cool and stands up to the US President.
Karen (Emma Thompson) is the Prime Minister's sister. When she finds out that her husband Harry (Alan Rickman) has bought an expensive gift for someone else she is heartbroken. Harry has had his head turned by their open flirting of his secretary.
Grieving widow Daniel (Liam Neeson) gets to bond with his stepson Sam after the death of his wife. Young Sam fancies a girl in his school who is flying out to America soon.
Colin is a friend of a film production assistant who flies off to America to find love, he goes straight to a bar and scores because of his English accent.
Swirling in all these and other stories is veteran wild living singer Billy Mack (Billy Nighy) attempting a comeback by releasing a Christmas single.
Richard Curtis inspired by Robert Altman has thrown a confection together some of it sticks better than others but a few of the segments just look creepy. The two body doubles in what increasingly looks like a porn film is not funny. The best man at a wedding who always fancied the bride comes close to being a marriage wrecker.
I did find that the film's sickliness and tawdriness works better at Christmas.