Love Actually

Movies 365: Day 37 – Love Actually

I’m not the audience for this movie. Some directors (Robert Altman, P.T. Anderson) manage to make great films, with sprawling casts, and multiple story lines that are all somehow interconnected, but generally speaking films of this nature are terrible. Cliche ridden pieces of high coincidence, with no real message to be derived from the interconnectedness (is that a word?) of the characters. In addition, romantic comedies are typically anathema to me. So, why on earth would I actually put myself through watching Love Actually? A romantic comedy, with a sprawling cast and multiple story lines that are all somehow interconnected, sounds like a recipe for a film I would hate.

Well, I didn’t hate Love Actually, it never offended me, so I find it hard to muster up any strong emotions about it. Ultimately, at the end of the film, I just found myself not caring. Not caring about anyone, or anything that I had just spent the last two hours and fifteen minutes watching. Honestly, save for a few nice moments here and there, and perhaps two of the ten or so story lines, I found this movie to be dull, dumb and the biggest crime of all – boring. I can forgive, hell, even enjoy dull, dumb crap (such as Transformers), but if it’s dull, dumb and boring, that’s when I’m done with it.

I didn’t care about any of the characters really, in fact, the only two story lines in this film that I actually enjoyed for the most part were the threads following Liam Neeson as the step-father of a young boy who’s mother has recently died, in an effort to bring the young boy out of his shell, and build their relationship, Neeson begins advising him on how to win the heart of a young girl at his school. It’s nicely done, up until the last five or ten minutes of the story, when it dissolves into sentimental crap, that relies on completely inept airport staff. The other nice story follows Martin Freeman and Joanna Page as they chit chat with each other at work. Their work just happens to be nude stand ins for the sex scenes in a film. They actually get to know each other (unlike most of the characters in the film) and there’s a really nice moment when he drops her off at her apartment after their date, where the idea of a goodnight kiss leads to an awkward moment between two people who have spent almost the entirety of their relationship together naked.

And then there’s the rest of the film, a hodgepodge of romantic cliches, that work sort of. The problem with these types of films, the ones with the large ensembles that is, is that you need someone who is truly talented, a visionary, to make them. Unfortunately writer/director Richard Curtis is no visionary, and as a result, a film that should have made me feel the warmth and joy of love just left me hollow, bored and annoyed.

Oh well, thanks to the success of Love Actually, its seems now that every year we get to see a different film try to replicate it’s formula (according to most critics less successfully), last year it was He’s Just Not That Into You, this year we’ve got Valentine’s Day, which I’m planning on skipping, if not merely on principle alone, then based on the fact that it has one of the most annoying trailers I’ve ever seen. Hopefully, at some point, a writer/director with real talent will make one of these films, but until then, I’ll be watching something else.

Love Actually (2003)

This movie is evil! ….Ha! I only say that because it is impossible for anyone to not fall for it. Oh, those Brits and their cunning ways of ensnaring you with their wit and whimsy.  I don’t like–better yet, I despise Xmas movies, but this? #3 of only 3 Xmas movies I’ve ever loved. Why can’t hollywood create a romantic comedy as pure and simple and natural as this? ‘Cause they have no heart and therefore no feelings.  Can’t create what they don’t know anything about.

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"Love Actually"-Rush Limbaugh Made Me Watch It

First, this is not a new movie.  Although I have never heard of it until Rush Limbaugh mentioned it during his radio show.
 
Second, the title makes no sense to me except on some distant level.  Maybe it's a British thing.
 
"The liberals are going on and on about this movie," as I paraphrase my hero, Rush Limbaugh, from his radio show right before Christmas 2008.  "The libs say this is the movie which typifies the REAL meaning of the season," I continue to paraphrase my talk radio hero.  "The thing is filled with nudity, it's almost x-rated, or should be..."
 
Rush ended his rant about this movie by mentioning it would be airing a few days from that day and quick as a wink I picked up the TV remote, flicked on the GUIDE channel, scrolled down to the station Rush mentioned and boom, hit "record" and decided that I would just have to watch this movie that made Rush so angry.
 
Way I figured, this movie was a liberal presentation of the world and nothing makes me laugh much more than how liberals view the world.  The Lifetime movie channel is filled with liberal movies but Lifetime is generally considered a chick channel so you've got to expect this.  But the USA channel?  And all the so-called liberals are were in ecstasy over this movie?  Well I didn't know what liberals Rush was referring to but Rush knows liberals when he sees them.
 
Hey, it had been a rough year.  I needed a laugh.
 
I LOVED THE MOVIE!
 
Where on earth has this movie been my entire life and how did I miss it?
 
Of course I lamented my failure to view the movie as a mockery of liberalism and the Christmas spirit as Rush saw it.  I even wondered if maybe I was some sort of closet liberal without what I thought was a now ingrained smell of the idiocy of liberalism and the damage it can bring.
 
Although it was, let me state now, it WAS a rather quirky movie.
 
But okay, I was by then sick of movies that had one storyline usually involving some broad who was sick of her life and wishes for another.  This same broad would somehow, perhaps with the help of Santa or some strange earthly representative of God Himself, get her wish for a new life only to be brought to her knees begging for her old life back.
 
Which did happen and Christmas came and the viewer would know, as the movie would teach us, what the Christmas season is REALLY about.
 
"Love Actually" was a bit more edgy and brittle than that hackneyed storyline.  Instead of one storyline, there were many.  That fact alone will make me enjoy a movie as my mind can follow several plots at once if the vapid writers would allow it.  "Love Actually" has a lady at an office who loved, secretly, an office mate, a writer who had a housekeeper from Portugal that he loved from afar, a drug-zoned singer who dances naked at one point, an English guy who goes to America to gain the love stamina he could not find in Britain, a British Prime Minister who loves a lowly secretary, and a homosexual groom with a best friend who seems to also be homosexual but who is very hetero and loves the homo's bride.  There were other sub-stories and it keeps the mind busy.
 
The stories do not always end up happily with all loose ends tucked away like a perfect Christmas gift bow.  There is heartbreak and pain.
 
America really takes a hit in this movie but even this didn't upset me.  It might have made Rush, known for a serious patriotism, angry and part of the reason for his rant.
 
Not that I'm not patriotic but by me the U.S. President as depicted in the movie was just such a ridiculous caricature that the viewer should know it was inserted tongue-in-cheek.  And that British fellow coming to America and immediately picking up three American beauties who all want to share his bed together...heh.  That does not happen.  That sub-scene sounds like wishful thinking on the part of the writers.
 
There were a few really remarkable scenes in the movie.  One is the marriage of the homosexual to his lovely bride.  During that scene various wedding attendees break out in song or stand up to play musical instruments.
 
Hugh Grant's magnificent dance has to be the highlight of the film.  Grant played the part of the British Prime Minister who became beloved by the English people for telling off the American President, like that's ever going to happen.
 
Alone and in a muse, Grant dances all about 10 Downing Street.  It was funny, poignant and his dancing was quite good.
 
Below a short video clip of each of the scenes described above.
 
There were morals to this movie.  A fellow cheats on his wife and learns how deep was his mistake and how foolish his flesh.  That drug-crazed singer comes to appreciate his manager who really made him famous. The English writer learns to speak Portuguese and his love interest learns to speak English.
 
The movie makes remarkable use of an airport scene, depicting various people greeting each other upon arrival and disembarkation. Those short scenes look very real and probably are.  They are the sort of scenes that play every day in airports across the planet.
 
So I must thank Rush for introducing me to a most enjoyable film.  If the liberals like it, well so do I.
 
And I'm no liberal although I used to play one when I was younger.

Love Actually

I’m not the audience for this movie. Some directors (Robert Altman, P.T. Anderson) manage to make great films, with sprawling casts, and multiple story lines that are all somehow interconnected, but generally speaking films of this nature are terrible. Cliche ridden pieces of high coincidence, with no real message to be derived from the interconnectedness (is that a word?) of the characters. In addition, romantic comedies are typically anathema to me. So, why on earth would I actually put myself through watching Love Actually? A romantic comedy, with a sprawling cast and multiple story lines that are all somehow interconnected, sounds like a recipe for a film I would hate.

Well, I didn’t hate Love Actually, it never offended me, so I find it hard to muster up any strong emotions about it. Ultimately, at the end of the film, I just found myself not caring. Not caring about anyone, or anything that I had just spent the last two hours and fifteen minutes watching. Honestly, save for a few nice moments here and there, and perhaps two of the ten or so story lines, I found this movie to be dull, dumb and the biggest crime of all – boring. I can forgive, hell, even enjoy dull, dumb crap (such as Transformers), but if it’s dull, dumb and boring, that’s when I’m done with it.

I didn’t care about any of the characters really, in fact, the only two story lines in this film that I actually enjoyed for the most part were the threads following Liam Neeson as the step-father of a young boy who’s mother has recently died, in an effort to bring the young boy out of his shell, and build their relationship, Neeson begins advising him on how to win the heart of a young girl at his school. It’s nicely done, up until the last five or ten minutes of the story, when it dissolves into sentimental crap, that relies on completely inept airport staff. The other nice story follows Martin Freeman and Joanna Page as they chit chat with each other at work. Their work just happens to be nude stand ins for the sex scenes in a film. They actually get to know each other (unlike most of the characters in the film) and there’s a really nice moment when he drops her off at her apartment after their date, where the idea of a goodnight kiss leads to an awkward moment between two people who have spent almost the entirety of their relationship together naked.

And then there’s the rest of the film, a hodgepodge of romantic cliches, that work sort of. The problem with these types of films, the ones with the large ensembles that is, is that you need someone who is truly talented, a visionary, to make them. Unfortunately writer/director Richard Curtis is no visionary, and as a result, a film that should have made me feel the warmth and joy of love just left me hollow, bored and annoyed.

Oh well, thanks to the success of Love Actually, its seems now that every year we get to see a different film try to replicate it’s formula (according to most critics less successfully), last year it was He’s Just Not That Into You, this year we’ve got Valentine’s Day, which I’m planning on skipping, if not merely on principle alone, then based on the fact that it has one of the most annoying trailers I’ve ever seen. Hopefully, at some point, a writer/director with real talent will make one of these films, but until then, I’ll be watching something else.

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Last updated: 2010-02-10 02:57:16 by BartonRoberts

Love Actually

Last updated: 2010-01-18 14:45:42 by malikaziz

Love Actually

I intended to review on “Autumn in New York”. I watched half of it then I realised it was a VCD, not DVD and I couldn’t find disc B. So I picked another movie and that’s when life’s little interruption brought me to this movie. I’ve always wanted to watch it but never got around to do so. Today I finally did it. I know most of you would have seen this, please bear with me.

You better be warned of my love-hate relationship with British romantic movie. This might get personal.

The opening monologue by Hugh Grant blew me right at the start. “Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge – they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaking suspicion… love actually is all around.”

Richard Curtis always writes a love story that is so sweet but bloody impossible to happen, e.g. Bridget Jones Diary, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, etc and audiences, mostly females, swoon at the fictional characters he created. Thus leading, or misleading, us to believe in the possibility of true love, love at first sight or love conquers all. He makes falling in love look so easy. Maybe I’m being too skeptical though. On the other hand, despite of my criticism, I couldn’t help but to foolishly let myself indulge in his movies. I think Love Actually is his best work thus far. It involves 9 interconnected stories, heaps of actors, many subplots, broad ranges of people weave together in a single theme: LOVE.  Boy, this movie is a pleasant mess. Wouldn’t you want to get into that kind of mess?

There is a scene which rendered me a bucket of tears. It’s when Mark shows up at Juliet’s (Keira Knightley)door holding cardboard signs with his feelings written on them. Aww….  I cried so much, i thought my swollen eye was going to pop.

Just like how people sometimes fall for the wrong person, I couldn’t resist a classic British fairytale (read: non existence) love story. It’d be lovely to watch this again on Christmas, although I’ll probably try to avoid watching alone because it’ll only make me feel lonely. Whatever, I’m just gonna make a Christmas wish now.

All I want for Christmas is to _____ with_____.
I leave it to your imagination.

I found the followings on www.loveatually.com ,the official website. Each of them represents a love story in the film. I thought the words are so enticing and true.
“Love rocks on. Love is elementary. Love american style. Love unspoken. Love at work. Love as a second language. Love lasts a lifetime. Love is awkward. Love and politics.”

That’s all from me. Have a love day. =)

Mel says: 8.5/10 (I’m a sucker for classic romance , i know)

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Love Actually

I’m not a bug romantic comedy guy, but I will watch them willingly. Today, I actually chose to watch this (partially because the little woman was hinting at it). Having said that, I’m not ashamed to say that this was quite an enjoyable film.
Similar to the Harry Potter films, the cast is exclusively British (with a few exceptions). I am not one to bring about nationality and stuff, but the Britihs setting and cast work. For some reason, if this was done with American actors, I don’t think the charm would have been there. There’s just something about British accents that make almost everything better.
I really like how each of the stories intertwines, and they all come together at the end. Films that have these multiple storylines should do that more often. It relinquishes the confusion that the audience may be feeling after watching the entire film.
Let’s discuss the good parts of the film. First we have the aforementioned intertwining storylines that I just discussed. Then we have the performances of all the actors. I don’t believe a single one of them gave a bad performance. If I had to sya there was a breakout star, it would have to be the lovely Martine McCutcheon, who plays Natalie. The mixture of her talent and total cuteness steals the show. Hopefully Hollywood will give her a call and we can see more of her here in the states. It can’t be forgotten that this is a comedy. Granted, it isn’t a laugh out loud, riotous, knee slapping type of comedy, but it does have a few moments that will get a rise out of the audience. Pay special attention to Bill Nighy’s scenes for these.
The bad parts are few and far between, but they have to be brought up. The main issue I have with this film is that it doesn’t develop the minor characters enough. They play major roles in the film, but none of them are anything more than glorified cameos.  I also have a little bit of issue with the ending, aside from those that are related, how do these people all happen to know each other. That’s just me being nitpicky and curious, though.
This is far from being a bad film, but it isn’t a macho guy film. It seems more like the type of cheesy romance flick you watch during the holidays. It really is a good film, though. Snuggle up to someone you love, pop it in and enjoy.

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