Flawed, but still highly entertaining

Rating: 8/10 (9 November 2003)

I loved this movie. The movie's premise was great; we were going to follow the blooming and flowering of eight different relationships in the 5 weeks before Christmas. Suffice to say, some of the movie made me cry and some made me laugh and all of it gave me a warm, tingly feeling inside.

The acting is really superb and MOST of the characters interesting. The best story involves Hugh Grant as a Prime Minister who falls in love with his secretary. I admit I've been in love with Hugh Grant for ages and ages, but he is really a great comedic actor. His timing is right on. Most of the other stories were very interesting and we end up really liking the characters. However, naturally, because there are so many stories, we don't see as much of our favorite story as we'd like to. I wish we could have seen more of the stories featuring the prime minister (Hugh Grant), a couple facing a marriage crisis (Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman), a man teaching his son about love (Liam Neeson), and a man falling in love with his housekeeper (Colin Firth), probably just because their acting sucks you in. I also wish they cut three stories (the porn one, the coworkers one, and the British guy going to America one) that, to me, were incredibly unnecessary, didn't go anywhere, and took screen time away from the better stories.

But don't let that stop you from seeing the movie. The music is wonderful and you'll find yourself humming that `horrible' tune Bill Nighy sings through the movie. `Love Actually' is far from Richard Curtis's best, but a winsome British cast, a really witty script, and a shot of Hugh Grant dancing and singing down the stairs will make this movie incredibly enjoyable. Love is actually all around!
9/10