Wild ride of emotions & situations

Rating: 7/10 (27 July 2008)

How I view this film depends on what mood I'm in when I watch it. The first time I viewed it on DVD was during an extremely lonely holiday break, and I was devastated and drowning in Kleenex before the opening credits were finished. My most recent viewing found my reactions sliding all over the scale as the various story lines unfolded.
Each storyline is a different type of romantic genre -- everything from "Beavis and Butthead" humor to painfully exquisite, understated drama (perfected by Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman).
One of the strengths of this approach is that, if you don't like one style, another will be coming along presently. This is also a weakness.
Each vignette has its own strengths and weaknesses, but the majority of the threads are strong. All the characters, no matter how outrageous, are likable. Weaving the stories together takes a very deft touch, and this is where the director missteps most often, with forced transitions that are jolting and confusing.
For instance, the story opens with a tight focus on a black man; I'm pleasantly surprised to see so many people of color on screen. But it's not until the end of the picture that the character reappears (after a wild ride of story lines and emotions), and the shocking realization that we've been watching white people almost exclusively for the rest of the picture intrudes on the storyline. The opening and ending shots of Heathrow are extremely compelling because they show love manifesting in *people* -- not just trim, glamorous, white 30-40-somethings. It would've been nice to see that theme carried through the film with more diverse casting. Not just to make a more universal story, but to help ease the plot challenge of interweaving the many characters and story lines.
As others have commented, the nudity in the picture was often a hindrance. While it did work to contrast our notions of "sordid porn" with the downright "aw, shucks" innocence of the characters playing it, the clash of vulgarity and innocence was often too powerful to be anything but distracting and sometimes offensive. It was certainly gratuitous.
This is not standard "let's shut off our brains Sunday evening and just veg out to a brainless romantic comedy" fare. If you've just gone through a break-up, don't watch it. But if you want to contemplate the many manifestations of love, or just have a technical exercise in different forms of romantic genres, enjoy an evening with this.