Let's face it, you already know what this film's like...

Rating: Null/10 (23 November 2003)

OVERVIEW
It strikes me that this is a Working Title film by Richard Curtis and it delivers exactly what you'd expect from a Working Title Film by Richard Curtis so it is a little churlish to complain about it being over the top, schmalzy and full of angsty but charming middle-class English people. Frankly, if you passionately loath Four Weddings, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones etc...then you probably shouldn't even bother turning up to the cinema.
Now this is said I must point out that, as someone who has mixed feelings about his films, I enjoyed this one more than I expected.
NEGATIVES
Obviously, it also had some moments where you wanted to throw things at the cinema screen. For example, the airport scenes at the beginning and end are completely over the top (and might I say that the voiceover during this scene is basically stolen from Dogma). The sections with the little kid are faintly annoying and there are probably too many stories competing for space so that whilst some are perfectly weighted (Andrew Lincoln, Chiwetel Ejiofor & Keira Knightley and Martin Freeman & Joanna Page), others could use more room to breathe (Alan Rickman & Emma Thompson) while others still maybe should either have been developed or cut completely (Laura Linney & Rodrigo Santorio) and the Kris Marshall section seems to have strolled in off a different film.
Furthermore, comparisons with It's A Wonderful Life are misguided (Frank Capra's film achieved its status as the most feelgood happy ending in film history by preceding the ending with two hours of some of the darkest, bleakest material ever to grace the screen and the multiple endings here do not have enough lows preceding them to anywhere near match up to this).
POSITIVES
All that said, there are a lot of strengths to this film.
Bill Nighy is exceptionally funny and, as is always is the way when he appears in anything, he is the best thing in it by a country mile although Hugh Grant & Colin Firth also put in fine (though admittedly hardly mould-breaking) performances. Quite unusually, there is something of a political agenda in the film with regard to Hugh Grant and comments about his predecessor and there is something satisfyingly subversive about the fact that this mainstream entertainment takes an albeit subtle and foppishly charming stand against US Imperialism.
Andrew Lincoln's story of unrequited love is one of the most appealing sections on offer here whilst Martin Freeman & Joanna Page's section may be one-joke comedy but it is a funny joke and sustains its section well.
TO SUM UP THEN
So, basically when all's said and done, this is a funny, likable and entertaining film which probably won't change your life or your view of the cinema will keep you entertained for a couple of hours. But then, this is a Working Title film by Richard Curtis, so you probably knew that already didn't you?