Pre-loved

Rating: 6/10 (8 September 2013)

The perfect Christmas movie for the family? Well, no actually. It's too raunchy for that. Early in the movie, Martin Freeman and Joanna Page play nude stand-ins for a couple of movie stars who are about to film a sex scene. One can see why it wasn't cut out to get a lower censorship classification; it is funny in a film that is rather hit or miss.
Set in the weeks leading up to and after Christmas, "Love Actually" is not exactly a Christmas turkey, but it does serve up generous slices of Christmas ham. Created by Richard Curtis, the writer of "Four Weddings and a Funeral", "Notting Hill" and the screenplay for "Bridget Jones' Diary", "Love Actually" falls short of the clever insights and the originality of those previous works, however the film's hectic structure doesn't give you time to dwell on such misgivings.
The film features nine stories and a score of characters. Some of the stories are linked, but the theme of love in all its variations weaves its way through them all.
In a role that predates the real tragedy that befell Liam Neeson, his character, Daniel, attempts to adjust to life after his wife dies. He is left with an eleven-year-old stepson, Sam, played by Thomas Sangster who has a crush on a girl at school. Trying to get the girl interested in Sam brings the two together. Another story features Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman. They play a couple dealing with the pressures that getting older has placed on their marriage – and from the pretty young secretary in Rickman's office.
The two protagonists from "Bridget Jones Diary", Colin Firth and Hugh Grant star in separate tales in this film. Firth is a writer who heads to the South of France to escape a broken relationship only to find a more meaningful, and unexpected one. Hugh Grant offers another variation of his self-deprecating charm as the new Prime Minister of England. He becomes infatuated with Martine McCutcheon as Natalie, a caterer at Downing Street. The cheekiness of this scenario is one of the surprises of the script.
Bill Nighy gets the best lines in the film as aging, burnt-out rocker, Billy Mack who is cutting a Christmas album from one of his old hits. His long-time manager and friend, Joe, helps him through the trials of a comeback. The saddest tale has Laura Lindley playing a woman who is torn between her needs and of those of her mentally ill brother.
Andrew Lincoln as Mark loses the love of his life, Juliet, played by Keira Knightly, when she marries his best friend. Unfortunately, the resolution of this sequence is the least believable of all the stories.
Kris Marshall is Colin Frissell, a gauche young guy who thinks his English manner and accent will work magic for him with American women – he's right.
Like the story, the soundtrack is a mixed bag and features Nora Jones, Dido, and The Beach Boys. While Craig Armstrong's towering anthems supercharge the emotions, they wouldn't be out of place in a movie about final victory in World War Two.
Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue just about sums up "Love Actually" – not as memorable as some of Curtis' other rom coms but enjoyable enough while it plays.