Cute but not great

Rating: Null/10 (10 October 2003)

This project has a lot of things going for it. Richard Curtis has done a great job with past projects like Four Weddings and Notting Hill. The cast is full of wonderfully talented English and Irish actors. In the end it doesn't live up to any of Curtis' past productions, but is still a cute holiday movie.
The movie tells ten separate stories set in London during the holidays. These stories are all intertwined, but they don't come together as well as I would like. By far the best involved Hugh Grant as a newly elected Prime Minister moving into 10 Downing Street. Also wonderfully done was a storyline dealing with a newly widowed Liam Neeson and his stepson. Equally moving was a look at a marriage on the rocks with Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman.
There were five or six other storylines. I couldn't really tell you what they were about because they bored me. There was a very odd situation involving an annnoying Englishman going to Wisconsin to find easy American girls. I have no clue why that didn't end up on the cutting room floor ... although I saw an early preview of this so maybe they did wise up and cut it out.
I think this movie could've been great if they had cut down on some of the stories and focused on just a few of the really good ones. When they went back to a story I hadn't seen in over half an hour I'd lost all interest in it. I really liked a few of the stories though and that kept me interested in the movie. All in all it isn't Four Weddings but it's a cute date movie for the holidays.