Kitsch actually

Rating: 5/10 (30 November 2003)

Once a year a man has got to do what a man has got to do and take his girlfriend to the latest chick flick. This year the flick is called "Love Actually". I wouldn't go as far as calling it the "My Big Lame Greek Wedding" of 2003, but it is long, it's unbearably "sweet" and it's consciously unrealistic. Or is it?
The main problem of the movie is that it has too many episodes. It's like watching the ending of "An Officer And Gentleman" eight times in a row, when really one time was more than enough. Some plots are quite good, mainly those that are not so "cute", but either ratty or tragic. Bill Nighy is the shining light of "Love Actually" and Laura Linney's story is kind of moving. Keira Knightley's episode is nice, too. However, it's a thin line between funny and silly, between romantic and kitschy and the movie shamelessly covers the whole palette of these adjectives: Liam Neeson as the understanding lone father and his annoying son made me want to throw up. Hugh Grant in his typical "charming but confused and clumsy bachelor" role made me want to punch the screen. He couldn't convince me that he was a politician at all, he doesn't even seem to try, either. And what's with all the bubblegum critizism on Tony Blair and George W. Bush? Couldn't they at least make it a bit more subtle? That part was so sophisticated a kindergarten kid could have written it. The thing I hated the most, though, was the large amount of "Ally McBeal"-like humour. Scenes like the one in which Hugh Grant is caught doing a funny dance. Haha, I totally didn't see that coming! And the worst part is that people in the cinema went crazy when cheap jokes like that were coming on. Drove me nuts.
As I said above, "Love Actually" had its good moments, too, but unfortunately there were far more bad ones and when I left the theatre after all those happy endings I felt like a diabetic that had too many candy bars. God, how I'm looking forward to next year's Christmas chick flick.