Overambitious, flawed package

Rating: Null/10 (19 October 2004)

There's no point resisting it  it comes around once a year and though it doesn't feel like it, you'll enjoy it once it arrives. If you think about it, Christmas and British romantic comedies are so similar, it's surprising they haven't been teamed up before. The latest offering from Richard Curtis is called Love Actually and it does just that, weaving the destinies of a huge array of characters as the on screen countdown closes in on the inevitable Christmas Eve climax. The film is Curtis's first as director, and this is a fact that weighs unbearably on the man and his movie as Love Actually is a mess, uneven in tone throughout and never managing to achieve any sense of depth to it's sketched out characters. While being far from a complete failure, the film's many and varied pleasures are too often overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the project, with too much screen time devoted to stories which frustrate rather than enrich.
In what must surely be the last time that the formula can be wheeled out to any degree of success, all the staples with which we have been so accustomed are present and correct. You want a scene involving repeated profanity for comic effect? Check. A man dancing in his underwear to naff 70s music? Of course. Dido on the soundtrack? Why not. A kid in an octopus suit? We've got plenty of them, and lobsters too. As obvious as all the above may be, these familiar concoction still works and the final half an hour of the film is as always the most interesting. There are too many wasted opportunities along the way though, too many character studies that are merely touched upon rather than investigated. We have no time to invest emotionally in these people and so there is little pleasure in seeing their various love lives get sorted out. The hugely underused Andrew Lincoln gets the film's most fitting line when he pauses to proclaim 'Enough', ironically just when we are dying for more on his particular situation.
Lincoln's is a case in point that for every plot that goes on too long, there is one of which we want to see more. Emma Thompson is excellent in what is essentially the movie's best and most well written role and the scene in which she receives an unexpected Christmas gift from her husband almost steals the entire film. Laura Linney is also superb in an intriguing but frustratingly truncated role as a woman whose retarded brother rules her life. The rest of the cast are happy enough to cruise through their under written parts in first gear, many of them simply reprising their characters from the assorted British television realms from which they are gathered. The central focus is left to Hugh Grant to be Hugh Grant, something which he does of course do very well. Even the most dyed in the wool Grant fan may be disappointed by his predicament, as even he is not allowed the screen time his character (the Prime Minister for goodness sake) deserves.
The scenes in which he does appear are usually enjoyable though, particularly one which features that octopus I mentioned earlier. Indeed, it is perhaps the children who hold the key to why the movie doesn't fall flat on its face, as the school Christmas concert, in both build up and aftermath, is undeniably charming. It is a good job that Love Actually does childhood emotion very well, because when it attempts to address the wider issues it veers dangerously close to bad taste. Grant is the victim of cringe worthy writing on both occasions, both of which involve clumsy attempts to tackle the post 9/11 relationship between Britain and America. Again, this is the same syndrome of over ambition, because Curtis undoubtedly does the simple things very well indeed. It's just a pity that the poignant moments jar too often with those attempts that are less successful.
There is plenty to enjoy here to ensure the crowds flock in and guarantee that the Curtis and Grant double act will be back. There are however, enough cracks and jars appearing in the winning formula to ensure that future efforts will have to progress considerably. You get the feeling that Richard Curtis's ambition has got the better off him in Love Actually, and while his confidence in handling 11 different story threads in his debut directorial outing is to be admired, his inexperience is too often noticeable and to the detriment of his finished article. Our attention is frequently drawn to the soundtrack, on which 'Love is all you need' is a recurring and insistent refrain. John Lennon's lyrics urge a return to the basics and the bare essentials. If only Curtis had taken the advice he is so desperate to communicate to his audience.