Hate actually........

Rating: 1/10 (6 June 2004)

This movie is such tripe that I now understand why a movie that was supposed to be so good did so poorly at the box office. Because the general public knows an over-hyped, shallow, vulgar, piece of crap masking as 'romantic comedy' when it sees it.
I should have known that something was up when the credits were barely over & Hugh Grant is narrating about love and how there really is so much love in the world and that we just don't notice it and then he remarks on how the victims of the World Trade Center when they were making their last phone calls to family had nothing but love in their hearts not hatred which is probably true but seemed a very strange choice to use in the beginning of a romantic comedy. Apparently it was a portent of things to come.
The movie shoves characters and story lines into our faces without any story development and then expects us to care as every clichéd trick in the book is used to squeeze an emotion out of us. My primary emotion throughout the movie was disgust.
On top of this was coarse language totally out of place in a quote un quote light romantic comedy.
So many story lines throwing so much out at us and we're supposed to be amused and engaged by all of this.
As usual with "multi" story lines, after the first story is presented, the rest only serve to interrupt and distract or force the audience no matter how unwillingly to choose which storyline they prefer.
It's a shame about the movie. There are some good story lines, some fine performances, Laura Linney in particular but again, the movie just jumps in without warming up it's audience so that by the time starts reaching it's dramatic peaks, you're too p***ed to care.
And now we get to really bad part of the movie. Hugh Grant practically doing a parody of his on screen self is absolutely, atrociously bad as none other than the Prime Minster of England.He's totally unbelievable in the role.
Billy Bob Thorton as President of the United States in a cameo role gives another great performance as a sleazy Clinton-esqe type.
Unfortunately the film also includes a rather silly scene where Hugh Grant as the Prime Minister at a press conference with Billy Bob's President makes a rather dumb statement to the press about how the UK is although a small country, a great one and the US has been a big bully so the UK is going to be tough too. Seriously.
This is presented as a serious political "moment" in the film. Besides the fact that the political statement is totally out of place in the film and besides the fact that UK's Prime Minister is standing strong and tall as an ally of the US despite criticism in his own country, besides all this, it's just another incredibly stupid moment in the film.
This is one very strange movie.