Love is all around - except in the overall feeling

Rating: 4/10 (9 December 2009)

In a collection of different love stories in Britain the Prime Minister (Grant) falls in love, a young boy falls in love with a singer and an office worker chooses his colleague over his wife for Christmas.
Richard Curtis' directional debut brings about his familiar agenda of love and lust and everything relating to the emotion and with an array of renowned names and faces from Britain this was a guaranteed smash at the right time in 2003.
Curtis' collection of writing credits has spurned many films and honours in the 20th century with enjoyable romantic comedies such as Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill. Then after a successful Bridget Jones' Diary adaptation came this, the Christmas extravaganza of 2003, packed with more stars than you can count and whilst the records may say differently, this is a pretty standard flick.
Defining the genre of romance is relatively easy. Guy likes girl, girl likes guy, someone has an affair, a kid complicates life etc the formula is generically familiar and Curtis takes the conventional format and attempts bravely but foolishly to mix all the formats with all the celebrities into one film, and this sends the film in a downward spiral.
One example is the Prime Minister's sister is having trouble with her husband who is contemplating sleeping with his work colleague who ends up telling the Prime Minister where the love of his life is, next door. Everyone at the airport feels too good to be true. All in all, wrapping everything up in a tight package does not give any sense of realism to proceedings, and neither does the gut wrenching scripting.
A perfect example is Colin Firth's story where he speaks perfect English but his assistant only speaks Portuguese and yet when he says one thing and her subtitles are exactly the same. Funny? Not really when you know the inevitable outcome and wish they would just get it over with. This film will test the patience of it's viewer thanks to similar agendas and messages with its multiple stories.
One scene in the airport where Liam Neeson's son Thomas Sangster dives past professional bodyguard's in an attempt to tell a girl he has never spoken to that he loves her. This will either make you laugh at the silliness or turn away and pretend to be somewhere else. I'm all for romantic gestures but this is no ending to 'When Harry met Sally'; this is a completely exaggerated fantastical depiction of love.
There are the odd moments of comedy that work regardless. Kris Marshall's sex generator is amusing and the scene in America is a standout and Bill Nighy is easily the best out of the bunch with a stereotypical rock star.
If its Christmas this is a bit of fun but ultimately the romantic stories are too unrealistic in the sense of being too picture perfect and the sleazy standard multi narrative never lets up with too many characters with too much personal agendas to concentrate on.