Love is all around

Rating: 8/10 (16 September 2010)

The theme of the movie is love. According to the plot summary on IMDb website, "The characters are falling in love, falling out of love, some are with right people, some are with the wrong people, some are looking to have an affair, some are in the period of mourning; a capsule summary of reality. Love begins and love ends." The film has many characters which are important to the film. The first couple are Keira Knightley who plays Juliet, and Andrew Lincoln who plays Mark. The next couple of characters being focused on are Hugh Grant who plays the Prime Minister, and Joanna Page who plays Judy. The next couple whose life is intertwined with the others are Colin Firth who plays Jamie, and Lúcia Moniz who plays Aurelia. As we begin the movie we see the first spark of the love theme with the marriage of Peter and Juliet with Mark as his best man. The song being sung starts with the theme of love, or all you need is love! You can see from the look in Mark's face that he is in love with his best friends wife. The next theme of love goes into the funeral of Daniels wife and Sam's mother. The missing of a loved one is eminent through the pain of Daniel as he stands and gives his last good bye. The movie continues through many different aspects of the theme of love. Love between a boss and his secretary, a father and son. The theme continues to the scene where Juliet tries to persuade Mark that she isn't that bad of a person and doesn't know that Mark is really in love with her, she thinks he just dislikes her. She watches the taping of Mark did at her wedding and realizes he is in love with her as she watches the video of only her on her wedding day with nothing of the husband/best friend there at all. We continue to see the theme of love throughout the movie through many different scenes till the end when Mark shows up with cards and tells Juliet how he really feels. Love, Actually can also be closely related to the movie Wedding Crashers. The theme of love is also throughout that movie as well with a little twist of comedy and friendship along the way. I feel the directors motif behind the film is to show people that love comes and goes in many different ways in our everyday lives that many of us may not be aware of. I think another aspect of the film is the irony of all the different individual stories. Most of the time when you hear about stories with love as a theme you think of people falling in love. This film has some people falling in love, some people getting hurt with love, some people finding love in the most unusual places, and others finding love for their children. We all perceive love differently and find it differently. We see throughout the movie that there are endless possibilities that people have in their lives that does make the saying true, "Love is all around us!"