Tries a Bit Too Hard to Be Quirky

Rating: 7/10 (2 June 2006)

Overall this movie works, though there is much about it that is awkward. It helps greatly that the director, Richard Curtis, keeps his movie self-aware and old fashioned on purpose--when it becomes just too cute and quirky to tolerate, it at least has the decency to know it.
As happens all too frequently with these episodic ensemble films, there are some story lines that are simply more interesting than others, so the movie feels unbalanced. On a second viewing, it was much more difficult to have patience with the English-lad-in-Wisconsin sequences, or those involving the adult movie stand-ins -- which could have been left on the cutting room floor -- when there were such rich and affecting moments delivered by, for example, Emma Thompson, when she realizes the necklace her husband bought and wrapped as a Christmas present isn't for her, or by Laura Linney, in a brief scene of her visiting her mentally ill brother for the holiday. Bill Nighy, as an aging musician fed up with just about everything, is also a standout, and gets many of the movie's choicest and funniest lines.
I very much liked this movie when I saw it in the theatre, but liked it somewhat less when I watched it again after it came out on DVD. I suspect it may be one of those movies that doesn't in the end hold up very well, though it's harmless enough. And it's got a great soundtrack.
Grade: B