Love Actually? Or Non-Realistically?

Rating: Null/10 (18 November 2003)

To sum up this movie in a brief review probably wouldn't give it justice. It's a cute movie about all different kinds of love--love between a sister and her brother, love between married couples, love between language barriers, love between fathers and sons, and even first, more innocent "love" between 11-year old children. I have read some comments on this board that the movie was unrealistic and even offensive in its use of nudity and language.
**Spoilers** Well, some of the situations are a little far-fetched, which can be somewhat frustrating in a movie that more often than not nails the realism of love. For example, two people can fall in love despite the fact that they don't understand a single thing the other is saying? I'm not sure that would be love--lust, maybe, but not love. And a man travels to America so he can improve his love life and instantly hits it off with not one, not two, but FOUR American girls at the first bar he goes too--all because of his English accent. Somewhat doubtful. But as I stated, the movie definitely touches more realistic aspects of love, too. For example, a middle-aged man is tempted by his younger secretary. A young American girl realizes that her crush cannot be fulfilled because of her obligations to her brother. A man falls in love with his best friend's girl, but achingly realizes he can never act on those feelings. All of these situations rang true to me, and I found these storylines to be touching and even sad.
But the thing that really touched me about this movie was the speech that Hugh Grant gave at the beginning. And I think that speech summed up the entire 2 hour movie in 2 minutes. The scene takes place in an airport, and we watch as people greet friends, relatives, and lovers. Hugh Grant begins to talk about how all you read about these days is that the world is filled with hatrid and greed. But when he thinks about comments like that, he thinks about the airport, and all he sees is love. He mentions that when 9/11 happened, the phone calls that were made from inside the buildings were made from love, not hate. And he realizes that love, actually, is all around us. That speech gave me the chills--and after the movie was over, you realize that this speech is the message of the movie. Maybe it's not all meant to be totally realistic. Maybe some aspects of the movie ARE fanciful and far-fetched. But when you look at the movie as a whole, it's all about love being everywhere, and how can that offend anyone???