I don't get it either way

Rating: 7/10 (26 December 2007)

I don't get either the venom or the adulation for this movie. I like it; it is mostly undemanding, the vignette structure lets me dip in and out of it without much thought. Of course it is unrealistic, but then romance in movies is and when you see something billed as a romantic comedy you have to expect to leave your disbelief hanging. In general there is more to enjoy than to deplore. But two specific comments which may help.
1. Alan Rickman DOES NOT get his end away with the office tease. He never does. He buys her the bauble (despite Rowan Atkinson's camouflaged attempt to stop him) and she ends up grinning away because she knows she has him over a barrel. Emma Thompson has to cry not because Alan doesn't love her but because now she cannot trust him.
2. Sorry it comes over as sexist. Romantic comedies are, aren't they? I mean, that is the central point of romantic comedies, either vive la difference or can't-live-with-them-can't-live-without-them style of thing. But to complain about it is a bit like grumbling because Christmas pudding has sugar and fruit in it.