Wick's Review

Summary - Great 4.0

As cheerfully commercial Christmas movies go, Love Actually is actually a crappy, er, great one. Stars aplenty populate ten mostly separate love stories, making for a generally lighthearted confection. Writer-director Richard Curtis is a master of these trendy RomComs. Like his Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill, Love Actually stars Hugh Grant, here as a Tony Blair-like UK Prime Minister.

The movie is approaching its sell-by date however, since Tony Blair has long since left Downing Street, one of several cultural references that no longer resonate. Fortunately, it benefits from several clever bits and a handful of bracingly serious notes, including a glimpse into the familial impact of mental illness.

The funniest recurring bit centers on the nakedly crass song Christmas Is All Around Us, a rather catchy little number. Like Love Actually itself, it’s an effective – albeit nakedly crass – commercial confection.

Acting - Great 4.0

Strong Ensemble Cast

• Bill Nighy hit late career gold as an over-the-hill pop star who hits late career gold.
  • Gregor Fisher plays his long suffering manager.
• Chiwetel Ejiofor & Keira Knightley jumped offscreen as an exceptionally attractive couple.
  • Andrew Lincoln plays their third wheel.
• Alan Rickman & Emma Thompson employ their matchless dryness as a long-married couple.
  • Heike Makatsch smolders as a secretary with unholy intent.
• Hugh Grant channels Tony Blair, if the New Labour star were single.
  Martine McCutcheon is a delight as his profane muse.
  • Billy Bob Thornton plays POTUS as a horndog bully, i.e., how a Lefty guy like Richard Curtis must of viewed Bill Clinton & George W. Bush.
• Colin Firth & Lúcia Moniz play a jilted author and his unlikely romantic savior.
• Liam Neeson & a preteen Thomas Sangster play a father-son dealing with loss and love.
  • Olivia Olson & Claudia Schiffer cameo as their romantic saviors. Olson won great acclaim for her bravura rendition of Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You.
• Laura Linney plays a repressed career woman, with Rodrigo Santoro her object of office desire.
  • Michael Fitzgerald cameos as her mentally ill brother, in a heartbreaking scene.
• Kris Marshall plays a charming goof convinced that American girls will love his British accent.
  • January Jones, Elisha Cuthbert, Ivana Milicevic, Shannon Elizabeth & Denise Richards comprise a fantasy harem of American girls who do just that.
• Martin Freeman & Joanna Page play an oddball pair of nude models.
• Rowan Atkinson plays a very funny Christmas angel, first at Selfridges and then at Heathrow. Atkinson & Richard Curtis are longtime collaborators.

Film - Very Good 3.5

Writer-director Richard Curtis is a master at trendy, glossy comedies studded with lump-in-your-throat moments. Love Actually is of a piece with Pirate Radio, Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill.

The leavening drama in Love Actually comes from an affecting marital crisis and a sensitive glimpse of severe mental illness. The rest might be manipulative crap, but those serious notes elevate the entire film.

Edge - Risqué 2.0

Some oddball nudity and a fantasy harem in Wisconsin (of all places) give the movie some cheerful titillation.

Reality - Glib 1.8

It’s true that British accents are given undue deference here in the States, but that doesn’t mean bars full of hotties in middle-America are waiting for a goofball Brit to walk through the door.

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