How can seemingly intelligent reviewers rate this garbage?

Rating: 1/10 (22 December 2013)

I have no problem enjoying a film that's obviously been made for 'entertainment purposes only'. There's a lot of great films that have been made under this banner. Nor do I consider myself to be one of those 'serious reviewers'. But even pure entertainment needs to have basic standards, i.e. a story line, a plot, characters that you can relate to. The makers of LOVE ACTUALLY have basically thrown huge wads of cash at - and appealed to the more base instincts of greed of - some of Britain's finest acting talent: Grant, Firth, Atkinson, Nighy, etc. They have then commissioned a 2nd rate writer to concoct a collection of short stories, all of them so full of anomalies and inconsistencies that it almost beggars belief. However, it's the characters themselves that are the greatest failing in this veritable pile of junk. You can almost FEEL Mr Rickman and Mr Firth cringing as they deliver some of their lines - the terribleness of it all softened by the prospect of a very large cheque heading their way in the near future. But at last they didn't have to actually listen to the dreadful 'insult to elevator music' music that accompanied virtually every scene!