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Rating: 8/10 (11 December 2005)

"Love Actually" is a romantic comedy about a dozen love stories whose lives are all loosely connected to each other, all rolled into one, slightly over two-hour movie. Although it is a very touching movie which leaves you feeling warm inside, there were a few scenes that could have been cut and some other alterations to the movie could have been done to make it come together better.
This movie shows all different types of love from love at first sight, as in the story about the Prime Minister (Hugh Grant) and his tea maid (Martine McCutcheon), to Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) who sees that his love lies in his best friend and manager, and to Jamie and Aurelia (Colin Firth and Lucia Moniz), whose only language is love. Yes that sounds cheesy, but it is true.
Richard Curtis, the director of this film, who has also done work on "Notting Hill", "Four Weddings and a Funeral", and "Bridget Jones' Diary", does not seem to step out of the box with romantic comedies and casting Hugh Grant.
Hugh Grant plays a lovable, awkward, young Prime Minister, who falls for the chubby, who probably weighs about 115 lbs., instead of the rest of the cast who weigh about 98 lbs., Downing Street maid. Although all the girls swoon over him, I have seen this character many a time before in all his other films, such as in "About a Boy," nothing new in my eyes.
There is also the love is forever story with Emma Thompson's character, Karen, who has been married to her husband Harry (Alan Richman), who is a potentially cheating husband. This is the story that, if I cried in movies, I would. Karen was expecting a very nice Christmas present only received a CD. She then went into the bedroom and cried. They showed about five minutes of her just standing there with a sad song in the background. It was depressing, sad, and it make me want to go in the movie screen and hug Emma Thompson.
The next love match is Jamie (Colin Firth) and Aurelia (Lucia Moniz). He is the character who was cheated on in the beginning and then falls for the Portuguese housemaid and both of them can't speak the same language. Although this also does not stem far from his character in "Bridget Jones' Diary", I like this love story. I think that it is innocent and shows that there can be love without language.
You then have Bill Nighy's character Billy Mack who's on-going joke about his cheesy Christmas hit "Christmas is All Around" finds out that the love of his life is his best friend and manager- strictly platonic. I thought this was one of the more touching stories because it includes a certain love that everyone knows about at every age. The other stories that are more touching is about the love story between Laura Linney's character Sarah and her mentally challenged brother and the story about a step-father, Daniel (Liam Neeson) and son (Thomas Sangster), whose mother and wife had just passed, and apparently the son is in love with a girl at school. These are the more touching stories that people can relate to: brothers and sisters, dads and sons, elementary puppy love. These are the small stories that make this movie more realistic and like you know the characters.
Billy Bob Thornton plays the U.S. President in this movie and there is an anti-American feeling slammed in our faces during a few of Grant's and Thornton's scenes together. Thornton seems to be compared to a suave Bill Clinton. In the beginning of the movie, it also talks briefly about the war and the security at airports.
There is also one comic relief character, Colin (Kris Marshall), a young , college- aged student, who can't seem to find love in the UK, so he believes that if he goes to America, he will get tons f chicks because of his cute British accent. Inevitably, it turns out that it is true. This is another on-going joke throughout the movie.
The movie ended up being just over two hours long, a little too long for just a romantic comedy. And although this movie has 3 dramatic scenes with the man chasing the girl in a public, odd place, there is a deeper meaning behind this movie. It shows many different kids of love, besides romantic, and I think those points shouldn't be over looked. In the end, everybody still likes Hugh Grant and shy guys getting the girl. It is a good movie to curl up with a bunch of girl friends. Your classic chick flick, and I, being a chick, like it.