Love Actually

A

This movie continues the tradition of Hugh Grant movies like 4 Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill. This time the story is spread out over a larger number of characters. There are at least 8 barely connected relationships portrayed here and Hugh Grant is only in one of them (maybe two if you include his relationship with the US President), so he's not on screen as much in those others. But the performances are all just as good and the writing just as sharp. In a two-hour movie this only gives you about 15 minutes to develop each relationship, but it really works. It's not all just superficial pieces of sit-com, but people really struggling their way into relationships (and out in a couple of cases). The result is a light romantic comedy that is very well executed with very little time to be annoyed by anyone. There's a full range of emotion since each relationship is different: touching, comical, creepy, agonizing, sweet, awkward, ridiculous, and sad. But even with all of that thrown out there I didn't feel overly manipulated. They're not trying to strike too deep, but they're not just skimming along the surface either.

I could mention a couple of gripes. One is this isn't realistic: all these people are beautiful and/or rich. For instance, Hugh Grant plays the British prime minister who is conveniently single. Love at first sight is a given (but with 15 minutes per relationship do you have a choice?). And there is a common theme where just about everyone meets at work, often as supervisor and employee. Then the whole thing is centered around Christmas which in England is apparently the deadline to tell people how you really feel about them, but adding another layer of sentimentality. So you have to accept it as a Hollywood fairy tale, not as some commentary on every day life. One other gripe which usually doesn't matter to me is the language. Liam Neeson has a 10-year-old son and they both cuss like sailors. I'm sure part of that is to get laughs, but I'm hoping that kids spewing bad language and precocious observations don't catch on. In this case the kid was cute enough to pull most of it off, but I had to cut them some slack to enjoy him.

If you like Hugh Grant movies you shouldn't miss this. But even if you're lukewarm towards him you could still really enjoy this since he's not in it that much and the movie is just as good as those others.

I'll give it an A.

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