Love is all around us

Rating: 9/10 (12 January 2011)

A romance movie that wasn't about a love story, but about the wonderful gift of love itself.
I wanted to download this movie some time when I was planning to watch Black Swan (December 28, 2010). I thought this would be a nice and heartwarming film like When Harry Met Sally, but it wasn't. It reminded me of that 2010 movie, Valentine's Day. In fact, I downloaded VD just to compare what was better.
There were a number of crude scenes that I wasn't really expecting to see. John and Judy's "sex" scenes were very.. Mhmm. Turns out they were both actors who did naughty movies or something of the like.
My favorites were Jamie & Aurélia (a writer and his Portuguese maid) and Sam & Joanna (young children).
When it was still in the middle of the movie, I found that I wasn't particularly interested in any of the relationships except for Juliet & Peter (newlyweds) and Mark (Peter's best friend). I was wishing that they'd have included at least ONE homosexual couple in the movie, but ha. As if. I was wishing that Mark would be secretly in love with Peter, but.. Yeah, right. Turns out Mark was in love with Juliet, even though he's never talked to her before. :| Very unrealistic, if you ask me. I must admit that their ending scene (Mark with the cards), was very sweet, though. :D While watching Sam finding Joanna in the airport, I felt all kinds of chills. That was the moment where we see everyone being interconnected. When Daniel (Sam's stepfather) tells Sam to run, we see the mysterious jewelry salesman (who was introduced during Harry's- I couldn't see him as anyone other than Professor Snape, by the way- scene of buying an expensive necklace) kind of "distract" the airport employee. It made me smile. Rowan Atkinson (I couldn't see him as anything other than Mr. Bean) reminded me of an angel. After Sam runs through more obstacles (outrunning guards, for example), he stumbles upon another conflict; 3 staff employees guarding the entrance gate. Then Billy Mack (rock singer) comes up and catches everyone's attention. That is when Sam managed to run past, undetected. Very sweet.
My favorite scene, however was Jamie & Aurélia's. We saw Jamie take Portuguese language classes. It was obvious he was trying to learn the language so that he could talk to Aurélia. When he reaches the restaurant where Aurélia works, he makes a big speech in her language, with many errors. In the end, he asks Aurélia to marry him. I was surprised by her answer. "Yes is being my answer. Easy question." It hit me. She tried learning his language, too! I felt so heart-warmed by that. :) Probably why they were my favorite couple in the movie.
The last scene- where we see everyone again- was nice. It put closure in everyone's love story. Billy & Joe's friendship was nice. I even thought they'd be the unexpected twist in the end, where Billy was gay for his manager. But, of course that wouldn't happen. Juliet & Peter are happily married, with Mark being the supportive best friend. Jamie & Aurélia are still together. We also see that Aurélia's grammar has improved significantly. Harry comes back and there are no hard feelings between him and Karen. Or are they just being civil? I can't tell. Joanna comes back and Sam's there to greet her, with his stepfather, Daniel- who's there with another single parent he met, Carol- is also there with him. John & Judy are getting engaged. Colin comes back from America with a beautiful girlfriend, who brought her sister for Tony. David comes back from a trip and Natalie greets him with a kiss.
Yes. Too many relationships. I know. I even got confused myself! That's the biggest problem, in my opinion. That's why I gave this movie a low rating. However, I don't think this movie should really be analyzed. People should just look at the big picture- the message that the movie is sending.
"Love is everywhere. Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge. They were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaking feeling you'll find that love actually is all around." That's it. Love is all around. We all know that, but we don't particularly remember it. That's why this movie is here. It's to remind us of that fact that most of us take for granted or hardly even notice. Love is all around us. I did like that song, by the way.