Laughs Are All Around

Rating: 8/10 (28 January 2004)

"Love Actually" is a crowd pleasing romantic comedy from writer Richard Curtis, making his directorial debut.
The movie takes place in England, five weeks before Christmas, and has multiple storylines about love and sex. The main focus is on three siblings. One is the new Prime Minister, played by Hugh Grant, who has fallen for one of his staff, the new tealady. The other is a long married wife, played by Emma Thompson, who suspects that her husband, Alan Rickman, maybe contemplating having an affair with his secretary. The last is a newly widowed stepfather, played by Liam Neeson, encouraging his stepson who's trying to impress his first crush. There are other characters including Bill Nighy as a fading, old rock star, Laura Linney who holds a flame for someone at work but has a secret which is ruining her love life, and Colin Firth as an author who can't express his love for his foreign housekeeper because she can't speak a word of English. Majority of the characters intertwine at some point in the movie but due to excellent casting and solid writing you're never lost plotwise.
Curtis is possibly the best screenwriter for Grant. Every line roles from his tongue as if he had thought of it. They're the comedy equivalent of writer David Mamet and actor Joe Mantegna. I feel that the sequences with Grant as Prime Minister could've been a movie all by itself. Grant has real competition humor wise from Nighy who always brings a smile to your face the moment he appears on screen. He's perfectly cast and his lanky frame brilliantly conveys his aging, laid back rocker. On the more serious side Neeson has never been better. His scenes with the young boy are the emotional heart of the movie. This strand of the plot is possibly the most successful of all the storylines. Thompson has the more thankless role and is overshadowed by her on-screen husband Rickman. It's been years since we last saw her and I wish she'd had a more meatier part. Rickman over comes the simplistic kitchen sink drama of a man tempted by a younger woman. We feel more for him rather than Thompson even though he's the one thinking about cheating. The pairing of the two as a married couple has a comfortable and true feel to it as if they had played husband and wife before. Linney seems miscast possibly because she is the only American lead in this extremely British movie. She sticks out like a sore thumb and you can't help but think that there must be a good British actress who could've played her part. Her appearance smacks of an advertising ploy to get an American name who could sell the movie in her home country. Firth is good though a little typecast in the more romantic storyline of the movie. His role has you on his side from very early on and you constantly root for him to make the right decision. The other cast are excellent though in the case of the gorgeous Keira Knightley there isn't much for her to do apart from look beautiful. Outstanding cameo from Billy Bob Thornton, the perfect choice to play the American president.
I've always been a fan of Curtis' writing since the TV series "Blackadder II". His writing is the highest calibre of British comedy and it's not often that he makes a mistake. ("The Blackadder", "Blackadder: Back And Forth" and "Bean" are possibly his only work that isn't up to scratch and he can't be solely blamed for those as he was credited as a co-writer.) He has been lucky with other directors, Mel Smith with "The Tall Guy", Mike Newell with "Four Weddings And A Funeral", Roger Michell with "Notting Hill", but it's entirely logical for him to take up directing as most writers want to control the way their work appears on screen. He does a fine job. None of the storylines outstay their welcome and the scenes have a Christmas glow about them. It's also good to see Curtis regular Rowan Atkinson in a glorified cameo as a sales assistant.
Overall this is a great, grown up, inoffensive comedy that doesn't necessarily have to be watched at Christmas time. The negative aspects which I have already discussed are only minute and if it's pure entertainment you want you can't go wrong here. So many romantic comedies of late, "Two Weeks Notice" and "Maid In Manhattan" for example, have been seriously lacking in the comedy department. It's refreshing to find a good date movie that a man can safely enjoy.