Perfect popcorn, snuggle with someone you love, entertainment.

Rating: 7/10 (27 June 2004)

After a silly intro about terrorism, the rest of the movie features what, if we're being honest, everyone wants to see: people meeting and falling in love. Its the best part of every love story: so instead of dealing with all the unpleasantness that follows (a la Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind), let's just have excerpts from twelve characters who experience only those good bits.
I'm not doing it justice by saying its only the good bits - its more like the most vibrant bits. Two or three stories have a more sombre, sour quality. But vibrant highs and lows are not unique to Love Actually - they're a staple of any melodrama: they are the definition of melodrama! In this context, though, as happy ending as was possible considering the premise of each short story, was affixed.
I think he's cottoned onto a good idea with this - take the best (or most interesting) bits from many short stories and stitch them together into one movie. I thought the connecting material was sometimes weak, and i often felt we were just bouncing back and forth from story to story, progressing like a cement-mixer across the narrative. A bit to mechanised, not fluid enough, in other words. Also, i never felt like i got to know these characters. There's no time to really delve into any of these stories - which leaves us with something that's fairly superficial. But not as superficial as you might think.
This is indubitably popcorn entertainment, and a fitting choice for a couple looking for a romantic night at home, but you didn't need me to tell you that.
7/10
Highlights: I was glad i saw this for Bill Nighy, who plays the aging has-been pop star. He's hysterical. There is one strikingly beautiful scene of the movie, where Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now is put to good use.