Review of Love Actually (2003) by Michael M — 07 Jan 2018

This movie advertises itself as "The Ultimate Romantic Comedy," and...yeah that's probably fair, for better and for worse. It crams in enough storylines, characters, and cliches to cover at least 10 different movies on their own, juggling around multiple plots that sometimes have connections to each other and other times have only the connection of one person saying hi to another one.

By all accounts, I should probably hate this movie. It has so many things I hate in movies, especially romantic comedies. Cliched, overstuffed, almost aggressively sappy, creepy romantic gestures, and happy endings that fall apart when you think about the actual repercussions.

However, despite all odds, it ended up charming me. I would see the cheesy/creepy/stupid thing happen, and logically I would hate it, but it would be done in such a way that I didn't mind. Maybe it's the directing, maybe it's the writing, maybe it's the immensely likable cast, I don't know but for whatever reason it worked for me in a way where most other comedies would fail.

I can't call it perfect, because the flaws are still there, but it's goddamn impressive that they don't really end up mattering. It's just too damn sweet and charming, I liked it.