a charming comedy

Rating: 7/10 (28 April 2005)

Overall, I'm really glad i purchased this DVD...The stories were wonderfully written and easy to follow...a superior 'chick flick', if ever their was one. Worth it for the few brief glimpses of Rodrigo Santoro, and for the stories involving the always welcome Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, and Liam Neeson.
What I'm about to say has less to do with my being an American, and more to the fact that I'm a woman who was of the understanding that I was watching a romantic drama/comedy. Was it really necessary to have yet another 'I just want to thumb my nose in the face of the US' segment? Thanks so much Richard Curtis for your brief and all too transparent 'I've-got-the-power-to-show-how-big-a-bully-that-rotten- stinking-America-is' moment...it really served no purpose in the movie at all...except, perhaps, to make you feel better. It wasn't the attempt at expressing politics that I found annoying...just how childishly it was thrown out there; that, and the fact that you used Billy Bob Thornton to represent the Chief Executive...could you have picked a smarmier persona? The whole bit seemed mean and unnecessary.
Oh, but wait: then there were the stereotypes of the American women being bubble headed nymphets that live this side of porno land, and the whole story surrounding the weight of the adorable Natalie, who didn't look fat at all. Now, unless there was some sort of subtlety I missed in that storyline, I thought it was tiresome to hear everyone talk about how heavy she was...none of that made any sense to me as she looked fine...sure she was shapely, but fat? Whaaaaaa? Those were pesky smudges on an otherwise perfect little movie.
I know that sounds like a great deal of negative about the film, but in all honesty it was a fine piece of entertainment...thankfully, I now have the ability to fast forward through the parts that most irritate me, which truthfully, aren't many.