All You Need is Love

Rating: 8/10 (11 January 2006)

London, and its citizens, are in love in Richard Curtis' debut film LOVE ACTUALLY, which tells the intertwining stories of about a dozen characters, all experiencing different forms of love during the course of the Christmas holidays. There is the love between siblings, love that isn't reciprocated, love amongst friends, young teens, lovers, spouses, family members, politicians, co-workers, and the list goes on.
This, of course, is not a bad thing -- Curtis manages to fill his story lines with a large cast of mainly British actors who have all in one form or the other been in successful romantic comedies, but with so many stories, one gets the feeling that at times, either the film should have been longer, more episodic, or made into a two-part miniseries.
But as it is, LOVE ACTUALLY is a pretty good feature film that managed to bring more smiles and tears than anger and frustration. Most of the story lines, if not all, resolve themselves much in the tradition of feel-good films and while sometimes a bit much on the sugary elements, it entertains, especially in one sequence where Liam Neeson's character's son runs through security at the airport in order to get a response from the girl he loves.
Maybe not the definitive romantic comedy of the year as it was touted, but one that tugs the emotions in all the right places, and sets out to do what it's supposed to do: make you cuddle up with your partner, sip some hot tea, and enjoy.