Love Actually (2003)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Richard Curtis

Writer:

Richard Curtis (written by)

Release Date:

14 November 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Love actually is all around.

Plot:

Follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely and interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England.

Plot Keywords:

Love | Christmas | Prime Minister | England | Office

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Another 10 wins & 18 nominations

Cast

Bill Nighy	...	Billy Mack
Gregor Fisher	...	Joe
Rory MacGregor	...	Engineer
Colin Firth	...	Jamie Bennett
Sienna Guillory	...	Jamie's Girlfriend
Liam Neeson	...	Daniel
Emma Thompson	...	Karen
Lulu Popplewell	...	Daisy, her daughter
Kris Marshall	...	Colin Frissell
Heike Makatsch	...	Mia
Martin Freeman	...	John
Joanna Page	...	Just Judy
Chiwetel Ejiofor	...	Peter
Andrew Lincoln	...	Mark
Keira Knightley	...	Juliet

Also Known As:

Love Actually Is All Around (UK) (working title) (USA) (working title)
Untitled Richard Curtis Project (UK) (working title)
Realmente amor (Argentina) (Peru) [es]
Tatsächlich... Liebe (Austria) (Germany) [de]
Agapi einai... (Greece) [el]
Ahava Ze Kol Ha-Sippur (Israel: Hebrew title) [iw]
Armastus on see... (Estonia) [et]
Ask her yerde (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Igazából szerelem (Hungary) [hu]
Love Actually (Japan: English title) [en]
Love Actually (France) [fr]
Love Actually (Spain) [es]
Love actually - L'amore davvero (Italy) [it]
O Amor Acontece (Portugal) [pt]
Réellement l'amour (Canada: French title) [fr]
Rakkautta vain (Finland) [fi]
Simplesmente Amor (Brazil) [pt]
To wlasnie milosc (Poland) [pl]
U stvari ljubav (Serbia) [sr]

MPAA:

Rated R for sexuality, nudity and language.

Runtime:

135 min | Canada:129 min (Toronto International Film Festival) | South Korea:129 min (Asian Edition)

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English | Portuguese | French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) (Canadian Home Video rating) | Malaysia:18SX | Iceland:L | France:U | Ireland:15 | South Korea:15 (Asian edition) (DVD rating) | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Brazil:14 | Finland:K-11 | Germany:6 (bw) | Hong Kong:IIA (original rating) | Hong Kong:III (DVD rating) | Japan:PG-12 | Netherlands:AL | New Zealand:M | Norway:11 | Peru:14 | Philippines:R-18 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:M18 (video rating) (re-rating) | Singapore:PG (video rating) (cut) | Singapore:R(A) | Spain:T | Sweden:7 | UK:15 | USA:R (certificate #40173)

Filming Locations:

Aix-en-Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône, France

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

According to Richard Curtis in the DVD commentary, they had to put Emma Thompson in a "fat suit" to make her appear heavier because she is actually a very thin woman.

Goofs:

Continuity: Natalie's hair during car scene.

Quotes:

[to Harry]
Karen: Now which doll shall we give Daisy's little friend Emily? The one that looks like a transvestite or the one that looks like a dominatrix?

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "The Comic Strip Presents...: Sex Actually (#8.3)" (2005)

Soundtrack:

Jump (For My Love)

Surprisingly Enjoyable

I hate romantic comedies. I detest them. You can list the actors I avoid watching: Hugh Grant, Sandra Bullock, Richard Gere, Julia Roberts. Romantic comedies make me cringe and I avoid them like the plague so you can imagine the foul mood I was in when I was forced to watch this film.

And the introductory voice-over by Hugh Grant as we watch an airport full of people hugging made me want to commit an act of violence - either against the people who forced me to watch this film or against myself just to end the torture.

Then the most unbelievably shocking thing happened. Bill Nighy and Gregor Fischer came on screen, mocking one of the most hated love songs in Britain, "Love is all Around" and I found myself getting sucked into the film.

By the time I reached the end of the film I found myself facing the impossible, there was one romantic comedy out there that genuinely is a comedy and actually likeable. No-one was more shocked than I.

Many different kinds of love are covered (although not all kinds), there's 8 storylines and the biggest cast list I've seen in a long time. Somehow, it works. You'd think it wouldn't, I know I certainly didn't.

If you're looking for a full-length story, this is not the film for you. It snap-shots the important events leading to the resolution of the couples involved, nothing more. If you want a classic romantic film, this might not be the film for you. This is funnier than most straight comedies I've seen in recent times, however (I'm just as harsh a critic of comedy films as I am of romantic films).

It's not trying to be the meaning of life, it's not trying to look at the big picture. In fact, it's only trying to do one thing, and that's say positive feelings crop up in the most unexpected places or are more prevalent than people think. One of the storylines, one that is cited constantly in reviews as one of the failed storylines with a sad ending is actually bittersweet. It doesn't end with failure but the failure of one type of love in favour of a different kind.

This film isn't perfect, I'll never find the perfect romantic-comedy because I hate the genre so much, for example, one of the storylines did annoy me intensely and yet ironically still made me laugh in places. However, the flaws in the film are vastly outweighed by positives. It's superficially complicated but is really a very simple film. It makes a statement: "love actually is all around" then shows why it makes that statement and doesn't attempt to do or be anything else.

And like the fact it covers different kinds of love, it covers different attitudes and portrayals of it - so a couple are realistic, a couple are classic fantasy, a couple are pure comedy and a couple are pure rom-com tradition.

I have seen no reviewer give this film a middle-of-the-road review, and I've read many reviews. I think, in the end, Love Actually is up to the individual. It's like Marmite. You either love it or you hate it.

Speaking as a cynical, misanthropic, Marmite-hating, Romantic-Comedy hating member of the human race, I actually liked Love Actually.