The biggest love story(s) ever told

Rating: 7/10 (5 March 2008)

After the success of multi-narrative films like Pulp Fiction and Magnolia, I wondered how long it would be before Hollywood tried the same thing with rom-coms. And so we have Love Actually, Richard Curtis's directorial debut, the man who's worked behind the scenes of many a Brit rom-com.
I must admit I'm a man who doesn't exactly rush out to buy romantic comedies under Richard Curtis's banner. But I must say the premise for Love Actually rather intrigued me. An interweaving tapestry of romantic encounters with a who's who of British talent. What more could anyone ask?
Being produced by Universal has sadly blunted the bite of some of the British humour I was hoping for. There are times when it seems a bit too Americanized. One kid even says "duh!" And where Harry Potter made the wise choice of leaving the Americans out of it, Love Actually can't resist squeezing in a few. The film even makes a somewhat needless sidetrip to America.
But you can't deny that Love Actually has a quite phenomenal cast. There are some really wonderful actors present. At the head of the line is Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman and Bill Nighy. A film that had any one of these actors present would be worth watching, let alone a film that has all three under the same roof.
Love Actually doesn't tell one story about a couple, it instead tells several, all at the same time. Where films like Pulp Fiction tell a self-contained story one at a time, Love Actually more daringly tells these stories simultaneously. They flow in and out of each other. Granted it does tend to sketch the characters a bit thinly, some stories are more interesting than others, and some could have been edited out altogether. But for the most part Love Actually is a film that hangs together surprisingly well.
I won't go into intricate detail about every single tale. Otherwise we'd be here all day, and the IMDb would really need to lift the 1000 word limit to accomplish that near impossible task. The film's major flaw is Richard Curtis tries to do too much. The plot is very busy. Always on the move. And because of this desire to cram everything into the cooking pot, it deprives the characters of some much needed development.
The most engaging story was the one with Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman as a married couple, who face trouble in paradise when Rickman's wandering eye sets upon the lusty secretary that works for him. I get the impression Curtis was equally entranced with this story, because he gives it the most development. It follows their typical married lives. Gently, affectionately sniping at each other. But then Rickman's Harry gets distracted by his secretary, and Thompson's Karen slightly picks up on it. There's a particularly devastating scene when Karen unwraps a Christmas present she assumes is a necklace she found in his coat pocket. Instead its a CD. The necklace was for somebody else.
Its very well directed by Curtis. You feel just as crushed as Karen. The ever delightful Emma Thompson really shines, and she makes a very believable couple with Alan Rickman. Even the scene when she confronts him about it feels real and natural. I wouldn't have minded if the whole film had been about them.
There are some other nice stories too. A sweet one involves the tale of Colin Firth and Lucia Moniz. Firth is a heartbroken writer mired in depression after his wife had an affair with his brother. But a cure for the lovesick Firth arrives in the form of a comely Portugeuse maid, and even though they don't speak the same language, they are obviously quite taken with one another. Curtis occasionally mismanages the story by allowing it to topple over into slapstick farce. There's a really awful scene when the pages of Firth's latest novel ends up in the lake thanks to a careless mistake. The two lovebirds wind up in the lake desperately thrashing about. Its a scene that aims for laughs, but never really takes flight. Their relationship is more effective in its quieter moments, like watching them try to express their feelings while overcoming the language barrier.
The best laughs come from the story of Bill Nighy and Gregor Fisher as a washed up rocker and his long suffering manager. Their tale charts a wonderfully funny course as in the run up to Christmas, Billy boy patents a blatant ripoff of a once popular song (which has to be heard to be believed) in his quest to hit No 1 in the charts. Great chemistry between the two, acidic one-liners and cuss-words galore make they're story enough of a reason to watch Love Actually at all.
There are some nice performances from the rest of the cast, in particular Liam Neeson's equally sweet story of a widower trying to sort out his step-son's lovelife, but they feel like filler material. The rather ludicrous notion of Hugh Grant as the Prime Minister seems added only to poke some potent barbs at the Bush/Blair administration (and Bill Clinton's too!). And because he's always in a Richard Curtis production. Other stories could have been left on the cutting room floor like a hopeless Kris Marshall hopping planes to America to chat up the local gals. A story that falls curiously flat.
I think, in the end, Love Actually is what might be oddly described as a flawed masterpiece. Richard Curtis does an admirable job keeping so many stories in motion, but did it really need so many? To see great actors like Laura Linney, Chiwetel Ejiofor and the radiant Keira Knightly saddled with fairly anonymous parts to play is surely evidence the film is not all it should have been. When Love Actually is good, its very good. But its still not quite the lyrical symphony of love it likes to think it is.