Lighten Up! Being so Serious, One Will Lose Sight of the Fact That Love Actually IS All Around!

Rating: 8/10 (19 December 2005)

There was a time when movies were celebrated for their "escapism," their Capraesque ability to show simple truths...for those who weren't so jaded as to be beyond help. Example: in "It's a Wonderful Life," when George crashes into the tree, the man who comes out is concerned ONLY with his "historical" tree, not if George is o.k. after the wreck. The man is jaded in his world view or as a friend and I refer to certain people, he is "hopelessly lost to the world." Thus it seems with many of the reviewers of this movie.
I was taught that movies require "a willing suspension of disbelief," and that absent our granting that, ANY movie can, and will, be blasted into acetate dust for being "unrealistic," "maudlin," "unbelievable," "insulting;" well, you get the picture.
Is "Love Actually" one of the best pictures of its genre, the romantic comedy? No, it's not. Is it a fun movie to watch? Yes, it is. Let go of the "necessity" for character development (it is a comedy after all) and let your own imagination fill in the blanks. Have we all become so intellectually lazy that we cannot invest ourselves in a film to fill in the perceived "blanks"? I think many minimize the importance of the 9/11 reference. In a nutshell, it points out the critical centerpiece of our lives that LOVE holds when confronted with a crisis. As someone who lost friends in the Pentagon on 9/11, I think it's wonderful to read stories of those in the WTC who were able to make those "profession of love" calls to their loved ones before they met their end. My friends in the Pentagon were not fortunate enough to have that blessing and those they left behind have a void left because of that.
Capra believed in the true essence of man and "universal truths" like those expressed in another, modern movie that makes a valid point about love, "Secondhand Lions." The "what every boy needs to know about being a man" speech, or at least the small piece we hear, perfectly mirror Capra's ideals and, to my mind, these ideals seem to be what Curtis was trying to convey in his movie.
If adultness in the world has become such that we must tear apart and parse everything we see, read, watch, hear or feel, then we are a much poorer civilization. If we fail to note that Love Actually IS all around, then we are in far more peril of losing our core selves than we are from the peril posed by terrorists. In fact, the case could be made we are playing into the terrorists hands by abdicating our basic rights to them by letting them dominate our fears.
The story lines, to me, point out the universality of love and its unpredictability. Rickman makes an error; gets caught up in the fantasy and, too late, realizes his error. However, the movie ends with the possibility of a relationship that moves into a more mature phase. Does it require reading into it to come up with that? Sure, but that's what once was the charm of movies. They weren't expected to lay everything out for the viewer; they engaged the viewer and expected them to become involved in the movie. Perhaps in this day and age, we are all too busy to do that. Perhaps in this day and age, we are all too prepared and ready to view criticism as being, necessarily, negative when the traditional definition of critique is to be seen as both positive and negative.
"Love Actually" is not the pinnacle of romantic comedies; however, it does have many redeeming qualities and has enough of that magic that elicits from us the "willing suspension of disbelief" that can, if we allow it, open our eyes to the possibilities. Seems to me the movie does accomplish that goal. It's light-hearted with twinges of pathos in it...if we take the time to notice.