Love Actually

I know its unorthodox to the movies that I've reviewed in the past but hey I have a soft spot. I can enjoy Rom-coms. They're not my favorite movies and I usually like to watch them with a lady friend with me which is what happened with this movie.

Now this is one of those movies where it has a ginormous cast of characters somehow all connected and they're all finding love in strange places. Guys, if you have a girlfriend, chances are you've seen a movie like this. Girls, if you have a boyfriend, chances are you've brought him to a movie like this.

I'm not going to go through all the stories cause that would take way too long and as you can see from the picture to the left, there are A LOT of connections. If Love Actually is actually the first movie to do this, its a very creative idea. Its been overused since, but its a creative idea.

Now before you assume this is just a simple Romantic Comedy, you may be a little surprised. While all the stories have some elements of love in them, a lot of them are a little bit different than falling in love.

For example, Liam Neeson's storyline is that his wife just recently died. He's left with his step-son, (played by a young Thomas Sangster) (BTW that guy is 23, he's just always looked like he's fourteen, even now)

(I Mean Look at him)

Anyway! Liam Neeson is left with his step-son. He never had much of a relationship with Sangster and when his wife dies, he becomes very worried about Sangster. Sangster is very quiet and Neeson realizes its because he's in love with a girl in his school. 

The great part about this storyline is the interaction between Neeson and Sangster because its less like a father and son relationship and more like best friends. Neeson says fuck around him and just treats him like an adult. Its just a really great father son dynamic, so much that I didn't care too much for the girl Sangster liked compared to how much I just wanted to see those two interact some more. 

Shows how great of an actor both Liam Neeson and Sangster are. They were probably my favorite part of the movie. Now I'm a guy and its Liam Neeson so... it makes sense I guess. 

But what about the love stories? This is a romantic comedy after all. Well the romantic in me really liked them. Hugh Grant is actually the Prime Minister of Great Britain and he falls in love with his secretary. Of course they don't get together till the end. 

The greatest part about that storyline is how shitty they make Americans look in this film. If you're a chest beating, American pie loving, hate it when people dis America... person, chances are you will not like this film. 

Take the President for example. 

They make the President of the United States look like such an asshole in this movie. He's a bully to the British, he sexually harasses Hugh Grant's secretary. He's just an asshole. 

Being American, I thought it was funny and didn't really mind it. Its a British romantic comedy, I'm not going to get angry about Hugh Grant showing up Billy Bob Thornton to defend his love interest. Its not that big of a deal. 

Colin Firth falls in love with his house cleaner... 

And while its kind of cute, this storyline is one of the story lines that gets a tad creepy. I know we're suppose to look at it from a romantic point of view but they barely speak a word to each other. He checks her out when she's stripping to go get his book that blew into the lake and suddenly he's getting the entire village together to propose to her and marry her. 

I'll give the movie credit, the scenes between these two are really cute. They are very much on the same wavelength while speaking in totally different languages. 

And then there's Andrew Lincoln and Keira Knightley's story. 

This is that famous sappy scene where Andrew Lincoln falls in love with his best friend's wife despite having never talked or really gotten to know her. Really basing it off looks. 

So on Christmas Eve he comes to the door, puts up a bunch of que cards basically telling her he loves her. 

Now the movie does get it right by having them not get together in the end. The que cards are just a Christmas confession and a month later Keira Knightly and that guy from 12 Years a Slave are still together and Andrew Lincoln, well he's just fighting zombies I guess. 

And that kind of brings up the problem with the movie. 

As you've noticed, there are about 20 characters in this movie. the ones pictured on the right are pretty much the ones they focus on but even with that many, there's so much jumping around that a couple of the stories you just wanted a tad more development. 

The best example of this is the story with Alan Rickman and his wife Emma Thompson. 

Alan Rickman has a new secretary that is hot for Snape. Well Emma Thompson notices this and it really creates a great dynamic of how love can be hard to maintain. In the end he screws up and I'm just waiting for him to fix things with Emma Thompson. Well the movie cuts to 1 month later and it serves as an Epilogue. Its assumed Rickman and Thompson stayed together but its not really the great explanation. Its the same with Andrew Lincoln and Keira Knightly. A month after he professes his love... nothing happens. 

Now there's some conveniences that take place in this movie and for the most part they're fine. The movie isn't too sappy to make me annoyed but its sappy enough to be a good love story. 

The humor in this movie is really good too. Bill Nighy plays a washed up rocker who puts out a really shitty Christmas cover of his most famous song. He knows its shit, he knows everybody knows its shit and he doesn't give a shit. 

The only other complaint I have with this movie is the kind of pointless side characters. If this movie kept with the premise of just having the core characters above, it would have been a really solid movie. But they threw in a couple side characters that were kind of just comedic reliefs or under developed for me to really care. 

Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) is in this movie. He plays a body double for sex scenes in movies. He meets the woman who played Queen Elizabeth I in the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who (Joanna Page) in one of the scenes and they end up dating and get married. There's not conflict, its just fluff thrown in there. It may be because I know Martin Freeman now, but I wanted to see that develop a little more.

There's a couple more stories, like Laura Linney's which was really cute and heartfelt. Overall, that's really what the movie is suppose to do.

I don't think Love Actually was trying to be anything ground breaking. It was just a fun movie to point out the reality of relationships and give an importance of love, not just during the Holiday season but throughout the year. 

But by not trying to be anything more than just a feel good movie, it accomplished more. The performances were good, much better than a regular run of the mill Rom-Com. 

Yes it did spark a series of movies with the huge cast and less conflict and more fluff...

(See: Valentines Day and/or New Years Eve. 

Love Actually is a fun movie that I think you can watch any time of the year. Yes, its more of a Christmas movie but its got some fun themes and a really fun cast of characters that give a damn. 

One last thing. 

Rowan Atkinson... was hilarious. Not a huge part but every time he came on screen I was laughing my ass off. 

Its really one of the better romantic comedies I've seen in a while. Good cast, and good story telling despite having a huge cast and a few rushed and unexplained plots. 

So have you seen Love Actually? What did you think? Comment below and discuss. 

I'll leave you with this. I love my Cracked videos. They did one on Rom-Coms and sum up a lot of my thoughts on this movie.