Call it a Christmas gift from Britain to the world if you will; this film is undeniably charming and, for a holiday movie, sets the standard for the first years of the 21st century. The acting talent here would be worth watching if the only plot was the cast cleaning a high school gymnasium, so it’s hard to go wrong. Love Actually is a Christmas romance that would have been made had the cast been assembled and the director dropped out and the studio could only find Robert Altman to direct it. There are at least 12 interconnected love stories and the four lead romances get about equal time.
Hugh Grant plays David, the new Prime Minister of Britain, who immediately falls in love with the woman who brings him tea (Martine McCutcheon). Grant has played this role before, and among a cast of equally good romantic leads, he excels. With the 2004 Oscar race looking rather pathetic, Hugh Grant may pick up a supporting nomination for playing Hugh Grant. Check out his dance moves, his self-deprecating smirks, his talking to himself and his giddy nervousness. He also must deal with a visit from the American president, played briefly, but with gusto by Billy Bob Thornton, who is both sanctimonious like Bush and a womanizing good ol’ boy like Clinton. The final press conference with the two will have British audiences standing and applauding as writer/ director Richard Curtis takes a rather clever swipe at American foreign policy.
The Prime Minister’s sister, Karen, is played by Emma Thompson. She is married to Harry (Alan Rickman), who is falling for his new receptionist while Rickman’s assistant (Laura Linney) wants to express her love for a co-worker. Thompson’s best friend is Daniel (Liam Neeson), whose wife has died and left him to look after her child from a previous marriage. The relationship between Neeson and his stepson is not unlike the one in About a Boy. The other major romance is between Jamie (Colin Firth), whose girlfriend is cheating on him with his brother, and his Portuguese maid Aurelia whom he meets while on self-imposed writing sabbatical in Provence. Despite the language barrier, they connect and fall in love. There are seven other love stories, but the one worth pointing out here involves Billy Mack (Bill Nighy who conjures sort of a Rod Stewart/ Keith Richards aging rock star look) and his chubby manager Joe (Gregor Fisher). Billy Mack has just recorded an awful remake of “Love is All Around,” except he has changed the word ‘love’ to ‘Christmas’. His scenes on radio and television are hilarious, as he decides to give honest answers and laugh at himself, which triggers a resurgence in his popularity.
Because Love Actually has a Christmas theme, it immediately gets disqualified from consideration as a serious film, but crowds will love this one and since each of the performers only has to carry about 20 minutes of the film, one never tires of seeing them onscreen. The problem lately with, for example, Hugh Grant is that the screenplay is often not good enough to keep up with him, so in movies like Two Weeks Notice, the audience gets worn out. Curtis keeps everything fresh here, and it is enough to carry a rather long film. This movie is clever and the interconnected love vignettes are an original concept in a genre where formulas and scenarios have been played out over and over again. Love Actually takes the best parts of formulaic films and reworks them into a rather fresh and original approach.
Call it a Christmas gift from Britain to the world; this film is undeniably charming and, for a holiday movie, sets the standard for the first years of the 21st century.- Jamie Gillies
