Well, no, actually

Rating: Null/10 (30 November 2003)

First, the good parts of this movie: there is some humor and some charming and endearing scenes as are promised in the trailer which enticed me to go and see this kind of film that I would typically not see in the first place. In addition, there are a bevy of very fine actors. Unfortunately, that is about where the qualities of this film end.
While the concept is fun (SPOILERS), various characters and there attempts at romance that in the end somehow are all interconnected, there is simply too much going on for any of these very fine actors to do much with the roles they are given. Half of the roles could have been eliminated and the picture would have been far more tightly bound and perhaps even given the audience to learn the characters names before you see them naked. The result of having so many separate plot elements is a rather disjointed plot with some characters that I would like to know more about and other that I wish would not reappear. Colin Firth's character and Laura Linney's role were two that I wish would have been developed further whereas the washed up rock star and lust driven young Brit (do we ever even learn his name?) could and should have been dropped entirely. As ever, Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson are brilliant.
However, I could forgive this if it weren't for the over the top cultural subversiveness that I detected in the movie. I found the depiction of the American President to be a sick cariacature of a lust-maddened Clinton with a power-mad Bush that the upstanding Brit PM must counter. Praytell, why was this necessary? That scene smacked of a political agenda so blatantly obvious that one must be dense not to see it. The inclusion of the porno actors who meet and fall in love was a cute plot (though not at all needed in the movie) that could have been much less gratuitously in some other situation. Did we really need to see Just Judy's teats or her fellatio simulation? How did that add to the drama of two people, total strangers, falling in love at Chrismas time? Was it absolutely critical to include not only miscegenation in almost punishingly over the top (three cases, or about half of the couples) but two blatant homosexual situations as well? Why was it relevant to have Laura Linney get half naked when the builiding up to passionate love scene interrupted by her cell phone would have been much more effective? Is this really a movie about love or about what Hollywood would have us believe is normal?
Must a Christmas movie be so rife with nudity, profanity and vulgarity? Must their be a homosexual reference to everything? I saw this film with my mother in the hopes that it would be an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon. Instead, I found myself reaching for watch to check the time and wishing that it would end and sinking deeper and deeper into my chair.