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One of the more interesting movies of 2003, Love Actually is a hilarious, romantic, emotional rollercoaster chronicling the effects of love on an interconnecting web of individuals. Filled with a number of memorable scenes, yet completely ignored by the Academy Awards, Love Actually is the type of film enjoyed by a wide array of people. I have yet to meet anyone who didn't like it, which is saying a lot considering this could fall under the category of "chick flick". But what makes Love Actually a successful film is its ability to identity with each audience member on a personal level. Each character is easy to relate to, and the multiple storylines are surprisingly easy to follow.
Starring a plethora of Hollywood stars and starlets (Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, etc), Love Actually follows the lives of various loosely connected characters as they struggle to deal with their love lives in the hectic month leading up to Christmas. Set in London, England, the film is a collage of various lives. The central character is the world's most eligible bachelor, the new Prime Minister named David (Hugh Grant), a powerful man who falls in love with his newly hired personal assistant Natalie (Martine McCutcheon), but can barely summon the courage to tell her how he feels.
The film also follows the life of the Prime Minister's older sister Karen (Emma Thompson), a woman struggling with her husband Harry's (Alan Rickman) possible infidelity with an office co-worker named Mia (Heike Makatsch) who she knows is after him. Meanwhile, Karen confides in her male friend Daniel (Liam Neeson) who is concerned about the strange behavior of his young son, who he later finds out is in love with a young girl in his class - a girl who will soon move to the United States. Rounding out the storylines are a writer who catches his girlfriend cheating and moves away to France where he find new love, a secretary who questions her love affair with an office co-worker she's wanted for years, a photographer smitten with his best friend's new wife, and a pair of porn stars who develop a relationship after filming a number of scenes together (many of these sequences are hilarious). To top it all off, one young man moves to Wisconsin were he believes girls will stand in line to make love to him. Love Actually features a multitude of eccentric and lovable characters the audience gets to know, and each character crosses paths in the final moments of the film, projecting a very uplifting message about life and relationships.
But the show stealer of Love Actually is Billy Mack (Bill Nighy), an aging rock star desperate to climb back to the top of the charts. He achieves his goal by means of a wildly outlandish and funny personality that puts him on radio and TV shows everywhere and leads to his indescribable song "Christmas Is All Around" taking the country by storm.
With a likeable cast of characters, and a multiplicity of viewpoints (pessimistic, optimistic, young & old, etc.), Love Actually is a refreshing film boasting a little bit of everything. It's a film that will make you laugh, make you sad, and in general, provide you with a good feeling when it's all over. For that reason, Love Actually is a definite must-see film. Don't hesitate to rent this one…
About the author:
Britt Gillette is author of
The DVD Report
, a blog where you can find more reviews like this one.
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