TravelingbeebryantRN & Flicks_withNick

To celebrate the 20th anniversary, my latest review drop brings the holiday film Love, Actually. The movie was released on Nov 14, 2003. The film has a 62% Rotten Tomatoes score, with a 72% audience score. The film is written and directed by Richard Curtis,  The film is an all star ensemble cast that includes Oscar winners Emma Thompson as Karen, and Colin Firth as Jamie. Other notable actors are Liam Neeson as Daniel, Laura Linney as Sarah, Alan Rickman as Harry, and Hugh Grant as the Prime Minister. 

The movie is set in England around Christmas time, and rotates around 9 stories of people finding love in different scenarios. Some of the stories include the Prime Minister finding love, a boy having his first crush, and a man falling in love with his house maid. 

The issue with an ensemble cast is that there are so many characters involved, and you can never truly be invested in their story, or care enough what their outcome is. Then there’s the issue where they focus on some stories more than others, and you want them to cut back to the storyline you like. This can only be fully flushed out in a tv format, as you can spend episodes on each character, to go more in depth. Some of the relationships make no sense in the movie. Colin wants to go to America, as he can’t get laid in England, and hopes his luck changes in the States.  We have one story where Peter and Juliet just got married, but Peter’s best friend Mark is in love with Juliet. We then get a creepy wedding video where Mark only has the camera on Juliet, and this is how we find out that he loves her. We never get any indication that Mark had feelings for Juliet, and after he professes his love to her via Cue cards, she ends up kissing him, even though they never indicate she had feelings for him. We then had 2 stories where the couples get engaged after 1 month of meeting each other. 

The story line that has the best acting is between Karen and Harry’s characters. Unfortunately this involves infidelity, as Harry starts falling for one of his employees. Harry buys a necklace while shopping with his family, and we even get a hilarious scene with Rowan Atkinson (Mr Bean), as he is wrapping the necklace. Karen finds the necklace in Harry’s sport jacket, and realizes it was for another woman, when she didn’t get it for Christmas. The most heartbreaking scene is when Karen finally confronts Harry at their kid’s play. I get they are showing all different types of love with their stories, but Harry pursuing his co-worker, and cheating on his wife is more lust, and heartbreaking instead of inspiring. Is the purpose of the movie to find new love around the holidays? Or to show you how different love exists? This storyline definitely makes it harder to answer that question. 

Overall I thought this movie would have been better served if they only focused on 3 relationships, instead of jumping between 9. Some stories were more fascinating than others, and none are fully flushed out. On the surface the movie is funny and charming, but once you go in depth, you realize there’s no substance. It’s almost like a cake with delicious frosting, but the cake part is unsatisfying. Yes the movie has funny and charming moments, and you root for some of the storylines, but I feel like there’s better holiday rom coms out there. 

The movie was on Rotten Tomatoes’ 100 Christmas Movie list. After reviewing the list, it inspired me to review my favorite Christmas movie next. 

I give this movie a 2.3 out of 5.

What’s your favorite Christmas movie? What’s your least favorite Christmas movie? Leave your answer in the comments!