Love Actually Film Review

Rating: 9/10 (5 December 2013)

Love Actually is a romantic comedy that follows the lives of many different couples. Some of the characters are young, some are old, some are falling in love and others are falling out of love. The film is set almost entirely in London, England during the five crazy weeks before Christmas. The characters of the film are played by many prominent actors and actresses, which include Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson, Keira Knightley, Martin Freeman, Alan Rickman, Billy Bob Thorton and Laura Linney. These actors portray the roles of friends, family and strangers who either are falling in love or out of love, mourning a lost loved one, realizing they aren't with the right person or finding just what they were looking for.
The movie starts off 5 weeks before Christmas and introduces all of the characters. We see how each character lives their life in London and what their personalities are like. The main character is the new Prime Minister David who quickly begins to have feelings for his new personal assistant Natalie. David's older sister is Karen who is married to Harry and begins to realize that he smitten by his secretary, Mia, who is always flirting with him. Harry's best editor is Sarah, who has a brother that is mentally ill. She is in love with her co-worker Karl and he feels the same way about her as well. Karen is friends with both Daniel and Jamie. Daniel has just lost his wife and has discovered that his stepson is in love with a young American girl. Jamie has just found out that his girlfriend has been cheating on him with his younger brother and decides to move to France to continue writing his novel. While there he starts falling for Aurelia who is a Portuguese woman who can speak neither English nor French. Juliet has just married Peter, but soon learns that his best friend Mark has been in love with her ever since they first met. John and Judy quickly fall for each other while on set of an erotic film. There is also Colin who figures out that in order to find someone that likes him or have sex with him he needs to go to America, specifically Wisconsin. Lastly you have Billy Mack who is a burned out rock star who is climbing back up the charts with a new Christmas rendition of his old song "Love is All Around", which in the end relates the characters all together. The movie follows each person and couple and shows how their lives change by Christmas time.
Two aspects of the film that stood out to me were the editing and background music. The editing was a great part of the movie because you learn about each and every character and are submerged into their love lives. You get to see how people are related or how they know each other. There is so much going on in everyone's lives so you would think that would be hard to film but the way the movie is edited makes it easy to understand what is happening in everyone's life and who they are connected to. In movies we usually see and follow one love story, which can some times get boring, but the film keeps us on our toes and makes us want to keep watching to find out what is going to happen with each person and their situation.
Another aspect is the music of the film. The main song is "Christmas is all Around", which is played throughout the film and sets the scene for the movie, making us think of love and Christmas. The song was originally "Love is all Around" but was changed for the holiday season. The song is played throughout the entire movie and leads up to Christmas, where we see how their lives and relationships played out. This song is a main theme in the movie saying that not only is Christmas all around but love is as well.
Overall, this is a great film. Love Actually is one of my favorite films to watch during the holiday season. It is great to see that there are so many great actors and actresses in the film. It's always nice to see a big named cast, who in the end work great together and make a great movie. I think this is a great film for anyone who loves the holidays and Christmas. It makes me excited for the about spending time with friends and family. Also, I think this film is great for anyone who really enjoys romantic comedies. This film shows a lot of romance but not too much and there is just enough comedy to make it a good film to laugh at. The film gives us a message by saying that everyone has someone who cares for them and that it doesn't matter how old or young you are. In the end love is actually all around us, we just need to find it.