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Movie Reviews, & Film Industry Commentary
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2003 – R – 135 min.
Director: Richard Curtis
Primary Cast: Alan Rickman, Bill Nighy, Colin Firth, Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, Laura Linney, Liam Neeson, Martine McCucheon, Keira Knightly, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thomas Sangster, and Rowan Atkinson
Stars *** 1/2 (of 5)
Popcorn *** (of 5)
Film Type(s): Comedy, Romance, Christmas, Relationships
Synopsis: “Love actually is all around us.” That is the theme Hugh Grant presents us with at the beginning of this Romance / Christmas concoction with a variety of the film’s characters interacting in or around London at Christmas time. The newly elected (and single) Prime Minister (Grant) falls for a staff member. His homemaker sister (Thompson) isn’t sure whether or not her complacent, office manager husband (Rickman) is cheating on her or not. Meanwhile, a widower (Neeson) tries hard to help his you, lovesick stepson (Sangster). The best man (Andrew Lincoln) at his best friend’s (Ejiofor) wedding pines secretly for the bride (Knightly). And an aging, has-been rockstar (Nighy) tries to squeeze money out of people with his new Christmas single and will do just about anything to do it. Many of these stories coming to a head at a school’s Christmas Pagent. Most of the cameos are very fun bits with beautiful women (mostly American) including Elisha Cuthbert, Shannon Elizabeth, and Denise Richards. Billy Bob Thorton appears unbilled as the visiting President of the United States of America.
Review: This is how Robert Altman would do a romantic comedy without a heavy-handed approach. Over a dozen primary characters with any combination of story threads to follow, reportedly all rejected screenplay ideas from first time Director, often time Writer Richard Curtis (Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary). While not as cerebral or fun as Curtis’ past efforts and the movie does try a little too hard to follow its’ opening mantra of love, the film does have a sense of whimsy and could best be summed up as ‘cute’. The writing is clever, if not always good, and the characters are well drawn and acted, bordering on stereotype but correcting course just before reaching that point. Nighy and Thompson are particular standouts, whose characters prove poignant and vital to the others in the film. Most comparable to the ‘60’s It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, the so-called Super Comedy with nearly every living comedian of the time in it, this is a British Romantic Super Comedy with an All-Star Cast. |
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