Love Actually (2003)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Richard Curtis

Writer:

Richard Curtis (written by)

Release Date:

14 November 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Love actually is all around.

Plot:

Follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely and interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England.

Plot Keywords:

Love | Christmas | Prime Minister | England | Writer

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Another 10 wins & 18 nominations

Cast

Bill Nighy	...	Billy Mack
Gregor Fisher	...	Joe
Rory MacGregor	...	Engineer
Colin Firth	...	Jamie Bennett
Sienna Guillory	...	Jamie's Girlfriend
Liam Neeson	...	Daniel
Emma Thompson	...	Karen
Lulu Popplewell	...	Daisy, her daughter
Kris Marshall	...	Colin Frissell
Heike Makatsch	...	Mia
Martin Freeman	...	John
Joanna Page	...	Just Judy
Chiwetel Ejiofor	...	Peter
Andrew Lincoln	...	Mark
Keira Knightley	...	Juliet

Also Known As:

Love Actually Is All Around (UK) (working title) (USA) (working title)
Untitled Richard Curtis Project (UK) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for sexuality, nudity and language.

Runtime:

135 min | Canada:129 min (Toronto International Film Festival) | South Korea:129 min (Asian Edition)

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English | Portuguese | French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) (Canadian Home Video rating) | Malaysia:18SX | Iceland:L | France:U | Ireland:15 | South Korea:15 (Asian edition) (DVD rating) | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Brazil:14 | Finland:K-11 | Germany:6 (bw) | Hong Kong:IIA (original rating) | Hong Kong:III (DVD rating) | Japan:PG-12 | Netherlands:AL | New Zealand:M | Norway:11 | Peru:14 | Philippines:R-18 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:M18 (video rating) (re-rating) | Singapore:PG (video rating) (cut) | Singapore:R(A) | Spain:T | Sweden:7 | UK:15 | USA:R (certificate #40173)

Filming Locations:

Aix-en-Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône, France

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Anne Reid's and Frances de la Tour's scenes were deleted. Reid played the school headmistress and de la Tour her lover. The clips feature as DVD extras.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the prime minister visits Natalie's house her hair changes between the wide shots and the close shots of her on the stairs. In the both shots her hair is in front of her left shoulder but some pieces are in front of her right shoulder in the close shots that are not there in the wide shots.

Quotes:

Press Conference Reporter: Mr. President, has it been a good visit?
The President: Very satisfactory indeed. We got what we came for, and our special relationship is still very special.
Press Conference Reporter: Prime Minister?
Prime Minister: I love that word "relationship." Covers all manner of sins, doesn't it? I fear that this has become a bad relationship; a relationship based on the President taking exactly what he wants and casually ignoring all those things that really matter to, erm...

Movie Connections:

Features Titanic (1997)

Soundtrack:

Rose

A fabric woven of happy and sad threads

What I appreciated most about Love Actually was that for the most part, it realistically looks at relationships happy and sad, successful and unsuccessful, with a future and without. It addresses different forms and levels of love, sometimes straightforward and carefree, sometimes complex and contradictory. There are schmaltzy happy moments and touching sad ones, moments of great strength and moments of foolish weakness. The movie is made up of many threads, and of course some threads are stronger than others.

The most interesting parts of Love Actually are the times when it addresses the tragic situations where love is self-sacrificing, contradictory, or fragile. One character's unrequited love is revealed as a noble sacrifice made for another's happiness (the method of finally achieving closure and moving on, however, could only work in the movies). Another character is shown to be caught between conflicting duties that will, we are led to believe, prevent her from ever being truly happy. And the strength that a third shows when love is shown to be fragile and her world collapses around her is tragically inspiring.

These noble, tragic threads are interwoven with lighthearted comedic ones to produce a fabric that holds together well. While some characters have to fight for their love, others have simple, happy, straightforward relationships, with love (or whatever) falling in their laps like a parcel from Santa Claus. And the purely comic moments, like Rowan Atkinson's appearances and Hugh Grant's Christmas-caroling bodyguard, are delightful in and of themselves.

There are of course plenty of nits to pick. Hugh Grant doesn't make a very believable Prime Minister, and even his very pointed speech to his American counterpart -- especially relevant in light of Bush's recent state visit to England -- don't redeem the odd casting. Others in this forum have commented on the number of fat jokes in the film, and while I agree, I feel I should point out that the entire point of the first such joke is that the character who has fallen for the "fat" girl clearly doesn't think of her as fat, and doesn't understand at first who the other is talking about. It's true that calling her fat is ridiculous; she's only large in comparison to Keira Knightley, who must be carrying some vital organs around in her handbag because there's certainly not enough room in her torso! But that one time would have been enough; the "fat" theme gets tiresome later on in the movie. I also agree with those who have said that much of the nudity is completely unnecessary to the plot, and that at least some of the comedic threads in the movie are formulaic and unoriginal.

In the end, I feel that Love Actually is for the most part a thoughtful and entertaining look at relationships, which does not shy away from taking the bad with the good.