A Feel Good Movie that is Entertaining

Rating: Null/10 (1 July 2004)

**Warning: Minor Spoilers**
Love Actually is a sweet picture with a positive view of the world. This film is not for most people who are cynical and believe that the best movies show that human beings are trash and without goodness, but even though I like darker pictures I still enjoyed this feel good movie however.
It starts out with a narration by Hugh Grant about how there is much love in the world despite tragedy's like 9/11, and other bad things in life that cause human suffering. Love Actually does not ignore life's problems as the Emma Thompson character discovers on Christmas eve that her husband, played by Alan Rickman, has been having an affair while the family happily open their gifts. It takes the idea that despite hardships and suffering, love still conquers all as each of the characters predictably find not only love in the end, but happiness.
Though I hold a more cynical view of the world and prefer pictures like Bad Santa about selfish and greedy people and don't see Love Actually as being realistic(how its characters find love and win other peoples hearts would be viewed as stalking in our own selfish and mean spirited world), I still found much to enjoy in Love Actually. I suppose in the post 9/11 era where so much tragedy is taking place in the war on terror, it is nice to see a movie in which love becomes easy to find and people are more kind then what they are in the real world. The director believes we do live in a predominantly loving society, and watching the picture allows us to comfortably sit in his dream if we are not bothered by its corny messages.
It is necessary to have pictures like Love Actually to make you feel good and happy, but I unfortunately still prefer movies like Bad Santa or Mystic River where survival depends on selfishness rather than love, that describe people in the real world more accurately than Love Actually which carries the old Hollywood message that love will always rule. ***1/2 (out of 4)